#we named them... krisp | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lovemesomesurveys · 4 years ago

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[created by: --rainboweyes--]

oo1. Do you miss someone who you shouldn't right now? No.

oo2. Do you have any close friends that were adopted? I did in the past.

oo3. What time did you get up today? Ugh, I dozed off around 5AM and woke up an hour later in horrible pain. I took my medicine and put on a heating pad and fell back asleep around 730. Then for some reason I woke up at 9:45 and wasn’t able to fall back asleep. I’ve felt like a zombie all day. I took like a 2 hour nap around 3, but naps just make me feel worse. Sigh. oo4. If you could have any job/talent, what? (regardless if can or not)? I wish I could sing. oo5. Who, in your opinion, is the best thriller writer? For the past couple years I’ve just been reading mystery and thriller books and I’ve really enjoyed them all. A lot of them are a series, which I love. Willow Rose, AJ Rivers, and Mary Stone are some of my favorite authors of those genres.

oo6. Does your Mum eat meat? Yes.

oo7. Was your Dad ever in a sports team? Yeah, he played baseball growing up and through high school.

oo8. Do you like apple and cinnamon crumble? Nah, I’d prefer a coffee cake crumble or just a cinnamon swirl crumble.

oo9. What's the most interesting thing you've learned today? I was surprised when I heard that some teachers are making their students, like elementary school age, watch the inauguration in its entirety and then write a paper about what they liked about it. I don’t know, I just thought that was kinda crazy. I definitely support talking about it and showing some short clips or something, but the whole thing at that age? Nah. That’s some heavy stuff to take in and try to understand at that age. Not to mention, one kid wrote they didn’t like it and found it boring and the teacher said that was unacceptable. Wow.

o1o. Do you prefer thick or thin crusted pizza? I like high rise dough or pan crust. I can’t do thin crust, there’s like nothing to it and that doesn’t work for me. I’m weird with how I eat pizza cause I only eat the top layer of it, so I need more dough to work with.

o11. Do you know anyone who is blind? No.

o12. Do you prefer monkeys or pigs? I don’t really have a preference.

o13. Have you ever had an eerie/paranormal experience? What happened? No.

o14. Do you own every DVD boxset of your favorite show? I have a few boxsets of I Love Lucy and one of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

o15. Actually, what is that favorite show? I like more than just one show - you can’t make me choose! <<< Me either!

o16. Do you have any friends with the same name as you? I don’t have any friends.

o17. How many people of the same name as you have you ever met? Several. Stephanie is a pretty common name. In elementary school there was a few of us in one class.

o18. What day of the month were you born on? Has this number occurred a lot? The 28th of July. I’m not sure what you mean by if it’s occurred a lot?

o19. How often do you see your best friend? Everyday, all the time. We live together.

o2o. Do you like cookie dough ice cream? Yeah. Wow, I have no idea the when I last had it, though.

o21. Do you like incense or does it give you headaches? I like some. Patchouli is my favorite.

o22. What sitcoms do you watch? I like older sitcoms like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Roseanne, The Golden Girls, Boy Meets World, Full House, Sister, Sister, Step by Step, Family Matters, Home Improvement, Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of Queens. Not too many newer ones, though. I find them super cringe. A newer one I do like though is The Middle.

o23. Do you find Tigers beautiful? Yes.

o24. I don't give up easily - is this you? It used to be me. Not these past few years, though. :/

o25. Do you prefer to watch or attempt? Depends on what it is of course.

o26. What do you wish your national flag looked like? I’ll keep it how it is.

o27. What time do you usually have a shower? I like to take them at night.

o28. Do you believe that people can be psychics? No.

o29. What is your most notable trait? That I’m awkward, probably.

o3o. Are you proud of this trait, or ashamed? It’s not the worst.

o31. Do you like waterfalls? Looking at and listening to them is quite relaxing. I wouldn’t want to get near one, though.

o32. If you wrote a song about life right now, what'd it be called? “Blah.” Ha.

o33. If you wrote a novel about your whole life, what'd you call it? I have one in mind, but it’s a play on words of my last name and I don’t want to share that.

o34. Who has the prettiest middle name you know? *shrug*

o35. So, what's your name? Stephanie.

o36. What'd be your name if you took your Mum's middle name? I’m not sharing that.

o37. Would you rather be a farmer or engineer? I wouldn’t be cut out for either one.

o38. A psychologist or a football coach? The plan was to be a psychologist, or pursue something in the psychology field, but...

o39. Do you shout when you're upset? No.

o4o. What color is your favorite vegetable? Green.

o41. Do you get more eye pain or back pain? I have chronic back pain.

o42. When was your last hug? Earlier.

o43. Describe your house to me: 2-bedroom duplex.

o44. Why did you chose to wear what you're wearing today? I always wear leggings and I was cold earlier so I grabbed my Mandalorian sweatshirt.

o45. Do you like banana milkshake? Yesss. Those are the best.

o46. What do you have in your fruit salads? I don’t eat fruit salads.

o47. Do you have a calendar in your bedroom? What is on it? I have two old Alexander Skarsgard ones. I don’t have a new one for this year.

o48. What color is the sink in your bathroom? White.

o49. Are you hungry right now? No, I had Wingstop for dinner.

o5o. Where was the last place you ate, except from home? Various places at Disneyland last February. I haven’t gone out to eat ever since the pandemic and quarantine happened. I get a lot of takeout, though.

o51. What was your favorite thing to do as a kid? I loved playing Barbies, playing house, playing school, hang out with my cousins, watch TV, and even play outside.

o52. Do you take any vitamins? Which ones? No, but I should be.

o53. Do you get embarrassed easily? Yes.

o54. Do you prefer Lion Bars or Toffee Krisps? I don’t know what either of those are, but I do know I like toffee so perhaps I’d like Toffee Krisps.

o55. What do you feel guilty about right now? There’s a lot. :/

o56. Have you ever lost something really precious to someone else? No, thankfully.

o57. When was the last time you wore makeup? Almost 4 years ago.

o58. Do you live North, East, South or West? West.

o59. Is the TV on in the room you're in? What's on? Yeah, The King of Queens.

o6o. Describe your city/town to me: It’s shitty.

o61. Are you a fan of Kings of Leon? Yeah.

o62. What do you think of the Lion King? I like it.

o63. Who makes you feel small/inferior? No one in my life currently makes me feel that way. I just... do.

o64. Are you protective of your family? Yes.

o65. Do you make friends easily, or do you keep to yourself? Well, for the past few years I’ve been keeping to myself and not seeking to make friends.

o66. What's your best friends starsign? Whatever the beginning of September is.

o67. Do you have a little sister/brother? I have a younger brother.

o68. Do you download films/tv shows? No.

o69. What size ring are you? I think a 7.

o7o. Do you like flip flops or do you find them annoying? I don’t wear flip flops, sandals, or any open-toed shoe.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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nads6969istrash · 5 years ago

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Here’s a List of Nads6969′s Victims

1. DracheaRannak : 2. Sailor-Serenity 3. FireFlea-San 4. Nardack : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=34… 5. Tsuki-Kioku : twitter.com/_hanarain 6. KarolHofman 7. Phianna 8. Valery (ASH) : vk.com/animepv 9. meago 10. Micpaca02 : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=11… 11. しらたき : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=43… 12. Nijikaze-KrisP 13. Kalisama 14. Pillara 15. Rikeza 16. YoukaiYume 17. unconventionalsenshi 18. Tsuzukikun 19. SarahForde 20. sureya 21. NoFlutter 22. Parue 23. Naoko Takeuchi art (#bless) 24. EkatiCAT 25. Disney art (general) 26. Winx Club/ Rainbow art (general) 27. NeliaViola 28. Marshmallaw 29. punkrockguy 30. FonteArt 31. RafusChan 32. amasugiru 33. VioletCoral 34. kiku-ichi 35. shirataki 36. chamiko 37. Nakagawa Waka : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=11… 38. aruterra 39. Lauren Montgomery 40. lady-narven 41. Foogie 42. ahma 43. てんま : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=43… 44. Saki Kunkatan 45. cristalaguamarina 46. HatterRose 47. CrownFoxStar 48. AlexLyre 49. Jijiyama : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=73… 50. Yettyen 51. iLantiis 52. Eclosion : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=21… 53: MiuAyumi 54. starca 55. Pandako : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=13… 56. SuzakuTrip 57. Naschi 58. stefanolattanzio 59. Marco Albiero 60. JackoWcastillo 61: Buninou 62. Emilia89 63. kaminary-san 64. ElynGontier 65. sailormoonsacrifice 66. SnowLady7 67. KrisRix 68. ArtistMeli 69. FallenMessiahX 70. KittyKatKissu 71. SoLoretta 72. wasenaki : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=27… 73. xuweisen 74. Huang xiaoJ : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=44… 75. sakura_taichi : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=19… 76. Kaminary : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=16… 77. Ehime : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=10… 78. Mei : www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=40… 79. YongFoo-ds7 80. SoudWrong 81. sksrlove : twitter.com/sksrlove 82. Miss0lesya 83. Rurutia8 84. Neko-Vi 85. SessaMyys 86. schillernatalia 87. Cure Nico : twitter.com/crybabyhero_ 88. tiffanymarsou 89. BluAjisai 90. shimoyo 91. MTToto 92. riccardobacci 93. Christopher Hart 94. ZupZup05 twitter.com/zupzup05/status/10…

And trust me, this isn’t all of them. A team of us are working together to track down the original artists of every piece of “art” in Ms. Stepputat’s gallery. So if you know any of these people, let them know that Ms. Stepputat decided that tracing their work didn’t warrant their permission or credit.

My plan, going forward, is to try to make posts for each of the names listed, and detail exactly which artworks were stolen/traced. This will not be an easy feat, as we’re talking about nearly 5000 pieces of “art” Ms. Stepputat has created by using the artwork of others.

What I want to reiterate is that none of the people on this list gave Ms. Stepputat permission to copy, trace, or edit their artwork in any way. And if you are one of those people who thinks “well if you don’t want it stolen then don’t put it on the internet,” then this site and this case are not for you and you are not welcome here. If we refuse to hold people to the standard of respectful behavior, then we allow stuff like this to happen and keep happening.

Stay tuned.

#tracing #nads6969 #sailormoon #arttheft #artthief #deviantart

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per-ineptia-ad-astra · 6 years ago

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Star Trek GK #27: Ice Journey

Our story begins with Kirk lamenting that they appear to have caused a civil war, possibly because the mere sight of those yellow suits drove people to violence. “This isn’t war,” the woman on the right helpfully tells us, “it’s madness!” It’s quite reasonable for her to be shocked, of course, since after all wars are usually very organized and polite affairs.

[ID: A comic splash page featuring three people in tight-fitting off-yellow jumpsuits on an icy planet while a group of blue humanoids with turtle-like shells fights a group of red humanoids in turtle-like shells in the background. The figure on the far left is saying, “I don’t believe it! We’re responsible for creating civil war in this planet! It’s impossible! The figure in the center is saying, “Illogical, Captain, not impossible!” The figure on the right is saying, “This isn’t war, it’s madness!”]

So last time they blew up a planet and this time they’ve started a civil war. I think I’m starting to see a pattern here.

The opening captain’s log tells us that the Enterprise is going to the planet Floe 1 to do a ‘special survey assignment.’ Scotty is apprehensive.

[ID: Scotty and Sulu facing each other in profile. Scotty is saying, “Darn right ye are—it’s hard enough to imagine being down there, our bones shivering away in the coldest planet of the federation!”]

Don’t worry Scotty, McCoy’s not even in this issue.

Kirk tells Scotty not to fret because he doesn’t have to do anything; only Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Krisp (whoever she is) are going down to the planet, and Kirk doesn’t anticipate any trouble because the Floe people are peaceful and cooperative—at least, according to the Federation annals. But Spock thinks there must be something up because “if there weren’t anything irregular about this planet, it would be highly illogical for the Federation to waste our time on a mere population survey...” Spock, buddy, I don’t know how to tell you this, but the Federation makes you run stupider errands than this all the time. Remember when you had to take your entire ship to go make sure two people got a routine checkup? Yeah.

The three of them suit up in their special ‘anti-freeze uniforms.’ Dr. Krisp reminds Kirk that if they breathe through their mouths or noses “the rapid condensation of our breaths in the atmosphere will choke us, so they’re to communicate through telepathy. Wait. What? TELEPATHY? WHEN DID THAT BECOME AN OPTION??

[ID: Spock zipping up his jumpsuit with a weirdly smug look on his face and saying, “Really?”]

ya rly

Spock thinks this is odd because their ‘screentest’ (what? Did they audition these people for a movie?) showed that the Floe people have a very similar metabolism to Earth people, also known as ‘humans’. Dr. Krisp says that’s one of the oddities that made her want to join the landing party. Oh, well, that explains everything, then.

[ID: Spock, Kirk and Krisp walking on to the bridge in their jumpsuits. Scotty, sitting in the captain’s chair, is saying, “Well! Look at this elegant trio! It makes me want to play bagpipes, it does!”]

thanks Scotty

Boy, that bridge sure doesn’t look like it does in the show. I’ll give them one thing, though: those sheer dorkiness of those outfits definitely is authentic to the show.

Sulu says the Floe people are expecting them and Kirk is all ready to depart, but the rest of the landing party reminds him to first grab some phasers and...tele-radios…?

[ID: Two comic panels. 1: Spock holding out two pink phasers and saying, “Right, Captain, but let’s not forget about these phasers...” 2. Dr. Krisp holding out two green devices and saying, “Or these tele-radios...who knows, if all goes well, maybe Scotty can beam down some background music and make the job less boring...”]

I guess all the communicators were broken. And presumably all the regular phasers, which is why they have to take the bright pink ones.

So they beam down to the ice.

[ID: Spock standing on an icefield, looking at his feet and saying, “I must say, these feet-binders are exceptionally well-built, Dr. Krisp...Earth people can be exceptionally practical at times...” In the background Kirk is looking at some domes rising out of the ice while Dr. Krisp turns back to Spock and says, “I told the engineer we were going on a special mission, not ice-skating...”]

yeah but on Earth we usually call them ‘shoes’

So much for communicating through telepathy. Or maybe they are? Maybe that explains how people are able to regularly talk with their mouths closed in these comics. Anyway, one would have thought that the extremely practical Earth people might have included some face masks with those suits, considering that apparently breathing out is deadly on this planet, but whatever.

There seems to be no one there at first, but then they start hearing some weird noises (like ‘fraaash’ and ‘fzoooom’) and suddenly the delegation appears nearby. They look like, well.

[ID: Kirk facing two approaching figures, who are humanoid with red scaly skin, sharply domed heads, and turtle-like shells over their chests, wearing no clothing except for a belt with a gun holster on the foremost one. Kirk is saying, “Thank you, delegate! I must say I wasn’t entirely prepared for...” and the foremost turtle-man says, “Meeting people who look like your Earth turtles?”]

For an extremely loose definition of ‘turtle’, sure.

Another turtle person approaches and welcomes Spock and Krisp (Kirk, apparently, is not welcome). “My name is Amara,” she says. “Delegate I, Sunaro, is my counter-leader...I believe you have met him...” Yeah, uh, we met him five seconds ago. Right here. You were there.

Apparently in the turtle system of government there are two parties, represented by Amara and Sunaro, but they’re both in power at once. “She does nothing without consulting me and I do nothing without consulting her...” Sunaro explains. And you actually manage to get things done that way? Wow, these people really ARE alien. I mean, the turtle thing is whatever, but that is unbelievable.

Spock wants to get going to the city to find out more about these weird turts and their weird government. Kirk asks if they’re not already in the city, but it turns out that the weird dome things standing around aren’t a part of the city—they contain the city, which is completely covered. As they approach one of these domes a chute opens out, which appears to be on fire. Then something weird happens.

[ID: Two turtle people stand in the flames gushing out of a chute in a wall, their shells melting off their torsos. Offscreen two people are saying, “So that’s it! They’re cracking their shells! That’s what the noise is all about!” and “Yes, now I see it! They have adapted to their rapidly changing atmospheric condition by sprouting protective shells whenever they are exposed to it...” A third person standing in the corner of the frame says, “And cracking them open whenever they enter a temperature which is right for their metabolism!”]

Dunno how well you can be protected from deadly cold by a shell that only covers your torso, but whatever. Kirk asks if this means the turts have “beaten time...or at least adapted to their environment with the same incredible velocity that their atmosphere appears to have changed?” Evidently so, Spock says, because “according to my calculations, this planet circles away from its sun and towards glaciation at the rate of an Earth century a year!” Wait, what? What does that even mean? Does Spock think Earth moves further away from the sun every hundred years?

Dr. Krisp says that the thing that puzzles her (...only one?) is that “even in the most advanced civilizations only a few beings manage to adapt completely! The rest either perish or...” Or what? Don’t leave us hanging here.

Spock wonders to himself just how many of the turts actually survived, and if this is really why the Federation wanted them to do a population survey. But at that point the turts turn the tables, training guns on the crew and saying that it looks like their mission won’t be pleasant after all because “your two learned colleagues have spoiled the fun.” I don’t know how they read Spock’s thought bubble. Maybe his telepathy was too loud. Anyway, Kirk gets grabbed by Sunaro while Amara shoots at the ground under Spock and Dr. Krisp, causing them to fall while Spock exclaims that his phaser is dead. Man, I knew we shouldn’t have brought the pink phasers.

Up on the ship a helmsman who might or might not be Sulu, it’s a little hard to tell, says he thinks he heard someone “beep on the radio” but now it’s gone. Scotty and Uhura both figure they should wait a while and not jump to any conclusions, though—no need to worry, the landing party will call if they need something. I mean, there’s never been a time when a landing party needed to contact the Enterprise and wasn’t able to.

But then Kirk does call them up. Sulu (it’s almost certainly Sulu this time) asks how things are going and Kirk says oh, they’re going fine, just dandy, there’s definitely not four turtle men pointing guns at me right now. “I’m afraid the survey will take longer than expected,” he says. “We’re going to need Lieutenant Uhuru to come down and lend a hand...err...” GUYS HER NAME IS UHURA HOW HARD IS IT TO GET THAT RIGHT COME ON.

Kirk gives some bullshit about needing Uhura to come help him communicate with the leaders. The bridge crew find this a bit suspicious. Or, as Sulu puts it, “Gee, the captain seems awfully repetitious and long-winded...I wonder what he is trying to tell us!” Yes. Well put. Anyway, Uhura figures Kirk might need help, so she’s going to, uh, march right down there, alone, directly into whatever might be going on, without any information. Great plan.

Down on the planet, Sunaro tells Kirk that, “You will have your court stenographer, Uhura, take down the report as we have dictated it to you! If you play your part right, no one will be hurt and your friends will be released! Otherwise, I’m afraid you will find the alternative most unpleasant!” Wait wait wait you think Uhura is WHAT

Kirk wants to know why they’re doing all this since the Enterprise came in peace, and Sunaro tells him “Peace is the idealist’s word for nonsense!” Right. Sure. Anyway, apparently they were once a happy people admired all over the solar system even though they spent their time herding goats in their underwear.

[ID: A beige-skinned and shell-less turtle person wearing boots and a loincloth sits in a grass field next to some goat-like creatures while another turtle-person waves at them. The narration box reads, “Our grass was green, our people industrious, our bodies perfect! Floe I was the most beautiful planet in existence when we joined the Federation! And then came a fate so unexpected...a curse...I believe Mr. Spock and Dr. Krisp are catching a glimpse of it right now!”]

think you might be overselling things a bit here

Meanwhile, Spock and Dr. Krisp have been cast into Hell, I guess. Cool.

[ID: Narration box: “Elsewhere, deep in the Floe city...” Spock and Dr. Krisp in a transparent cell are being lowered into a sea of flames full of blue turtle-people reaching their hands up and making sounds like “Urrrgh!” “Ooh!” “Oohm!” and “Aaaah!” Spock is saying, “So this was the future of the Floe I mutants! A world of mad, jailed people!” and Dr. Krisp is saying, “At the moment, Mr. Spock, we are no freer than they are! In fact, we are caged animals in their zoo!”]

So it’s part two, Uhura’s been captured along with Kirk (and boy is she giving him a dirty look) while Spock and Krisp have descended into an inferno full of blue turtle-people.

[ID: A comic splash page divided diagonally. In the top half, Kirk and Uhura are sitting in manacled to chairs, being watched over by two armed turtle-men. The narration box reads, “Captain’s Log: Star Date 20:27.5. Lieutenant Uhura and I are being held prisoners by the two leaders of Floe I—Dr. Krisp and Mr. Spock have vanished! It is clear that Amara and Sunaro intend to do away with the crew and me as soon as Lieutenant Uhura writes a false report about their mad society for the Federation...my only hope is that we manage to fool these tyrants and come out alive...I have lost all communication with the Enterprise!” In the lower half, Spock and Dr. Krisp are standing in their cell looking out at the blue-turtle people. Dr. Krisp is saying, “These people are burning up!...And still, they’re alive!” while Spock says, “I would be hard-pressed to define what life is under these conditions, Dr. Krisp!”]

As you can see, Uhura’s back to being white in this story. Actually I had a look through both my books and it appears that the only story in which she has an accurate skin tone (well, as accurate as anyone gets to be in these comics) is the last one we covered, The Perfect Dream. I don’t know if they hired a colorist with some integrity for just that one issue or what.

Down below, Spock and Dr. Krisp get cast into the flames.

[ID: Spock and Dr. Krisp slide down into the flames, surrounded by turtle-people. Spock is saying, “Watch out for those flames, Dr. Krisp! What’s death to us is evidently life to them!” Dr. Krips is saying, “I believe that’s just what their leader and counter-leader have in mind for us...we’re being burned at the stake for knowing too much, just like it happened on Earth, light years ago!”]

Light years ago?

[ID: A screenshot from the end of the battle in a Pokemon game, in which a boy in camping gear is saying, “Light-years isn’t time...it measures distance!”]

The blue turts tell Spock and Dr. Krisp that despite spending all their time flailing around and reaching out desperately they are perfectly normal people who are not to be feared. Apparently the red turts won’t give them the ‘mutation-speeding serum’ so “all [their] body fluids are freezing inside [them],” because they turned out blue and not red. And then they all got put into a giant chamber of fire.

[ID: Dr. Krisp wading through the fire and thinking, “Just as I thought! These people are really no different from Sunaro, Amara and their crowd! They are simply being punished because their bodies mutate into a different color!” In the foreground Spock is saying, “Dr. Krisp! Come here, I believe I’ve made a most interesting discovery!”]

you know I think this might be an allegory for something but it’s so subtle I just can’t tell

For all that talk about “what’s life to them is death to us” Spock and Dr. Krisp seem to be pretty not bothered by walking around in a blazing inferno. Spock soon discovers a giant computer screen in the midst of the flames which he thinks is controlling the blue turts. “They’re being killed slowly to set an example to others who do not follow their leaders’ orders!” he says. In my experience computers don’t work too well when they’re in the middle of a sea of fire, but I guess the turts are just advanced that way. Why they’re apparently recording the proceedings with a giant computer instead of, say, a camera is another question.

Spock and Dr. Krisp are like “yeah we should probably try to get out of here” but are interrupted by the cries of parents whose daughter has just died, which really shouldn’t be funny, and yet.

[ID: Spock saying, “I believe I have a way of...” as he and Dr. Krisp turn to see two turtle people standing and kneeling over the body of a third, saying, “AHHHHHHH! HELP! HELP! It’s Jdula—our youngest daughter—the metabolic imbalance has finally destroyed her...perhaps she’ll be happier now!” and “Her suffering has stopped...but ours has been doubled!”]

So...the turts mutated into red turts and blue turts. The red turts invented a mutation-speeder serum that allows them to adapt to the freezing conditions. Without this serum they’ll suffer a metabolic imbalance that will kill them, which seems to be a separate problem from just dying because it’s really cold. The red turts went all Star-Bellied Sneetches and declared that the blue turts were inferior so instead of getting the serum they were stuck in a giant room of fire, which is either killing them or keeping them alive until the metabolic imbalance kills them, or maybe both. And somehow their clothes haven’t caught on fire. Okay.

Spock and Dr. Krisp figure the best way to help the blue turts is to get them the serum, so they ask if anyone knows where it is. One blue turt tells them it won’t do any good because many of their people have already died trying to find it, then another one says that the Federation visitors might be their only hope except it’s probably impossible anyway, then another one says that they’ll tell them where the serum is on the condition that they set the blue turts free and then leave the planet forever, and Spock muses that it’s tricky because the Federation wouldn’t want them to be instruments of vengeance. All that happens in one panel, by the way.

Meanwhile, Kirk is being forced to give his report while Court Stenographer Uhura transmits it. “And so based on our thorough analysis,” he says, “we are forced to conclude that the Floe 1 planet adheres to the peaceful laws, er, uh...of the Federation and that in their er, uh...counter democracy everyone is treated, er, ah...”

Sunaro thinks this is suspicious and warns Kirk not to try any tricks, but Uhura reassures him.

[ID: Uhura saying, “It’s the captain’s normal speech pattern, honorable Sunaro...especially when he’s talking into a machine...”]

wow just come straight for William Shatner’s life there, damn

Turns out Kirk was stalling (oh so subtly) to give Uhura time to scramble the message. She succeeded, but unfortunately the turts have caught on.

[ID: Uhura standing next to Kirk, who is seated at a desk holding a transmitter, while Amara and Sunaro approach them along with a third turtle-man. Amara is saying, “Captain, I’m afraid our sensors indicated that your message has not been getting through and therefore...” Sunaro, drawing his gun, continues, “And therefore I’m afraid we’ll have to exterminate you, or rather, melt you!”]

Sunaro remembers just in time that ‘exterminate’ belongs to another sci-fi series.

Y’know, I’m not sure if I’m more concerned by the fact that the turtle woman has breasts or the fact that all the turtle men are wearing nothing but tight black briefs and boots.

Well, Kirk and Uhura aren’t going out without a fight scene. A terrible, terrible fight scene.

[ID: Kirk and Uhura punching Amara and Sunaro, who exclaim, “Arrgh!” and “Ouch!” while Kirk says, “There you scoundrels!”]

Before things can get any worse—if that’s possible—Spock and Dr. Krisp burst in, holding a strange disc pointed at the turts. “Not so fast, you ruthless dictators!” Spock declares. “Release the captain and the lieutenant or I shall drain the serum out of you and leave you to freeze like you have left your people in the Blue Chamber!”

It seems this disc they’ve found neutralizes the serum, causing the turts to begin to freeze to death. The...mutation-speeder serum. So...what, do they un-mutate? Also, how does a glowy disc act as an antidote to an internal serum? Also, what is happening?

With the turts forced to stand down, Spock explains to Kirk that despite being the minority of the population, the red turts control the entire planet. Any blue turts who rebel are sent to be tortured in the Blue Chamber, while the rest are slaves. Apparently the blue turts gave Spock and Dr. Krisp this disc (how Spock and Dr. Krisp then got out of the Blue Chamber is not explained). The reason the blue turts haven’t used the discs themselves is because without the serum, anyone who escapes the Blue Chamber immediately dies of frostbite. So...the Blue Chamber is where the blue turts are sent to be tortured and die to serve as an example to the rest...and it’s also what keeps them alive? Do the red turts think it’s not effective enough if the blue turts die too quickly, or did they just set the whole place on fire just to be extra mean?

Spock explains how he used Logic to find the room they’re in, which is apparently directly above where the serum is produced. Dr. Krisp explains that, “The discs were easy to obtain—the red Floe 1 citizens did not count on the fact that the blue Floe 1 prisoners discovered the disc arsenal lay hidden behind a panel right in the Blue Chamber--” So they...put the weapons that are deadly to them...in the room where all the prisoners who have a lot of motive to kill them are kept...prisoners who could use those weapons without fear because they don’t have the serum themselves. Right. I’m starting to see why these guys are going extinct.

But then! Sunaro and Amara do...something.

[ID: A narration box says, “Suddenly...” Amara and Sunaro are standing next to a control panel at the back of the room. The other three landing party members are arrayed around Uhura, who is lit up and exclaiming, “They’ve got me stuck to a live wire! He...help...awh...” Spock is saying, “Stand back, captain! They’ve taken control of the panels!” while Kirk says, “Hold it Sunaro! Turn the life-current back on or I’ll fire!”]

Even with everyone shouting narration about it I have no idea what’s going on in this panel.

They enter a stand-off, with Kirk demanding they let Uhura go or his report to the Federation will be very cross. Amara says okay, they’ll all be released, and opens a trap door underneath them. Why...why was that even there?

But Amara’s incredibly genius move only results in the crew landing exactly where they wanted to go anyway: the serum chamber.

[ID: A page showing a large stone room with high dais next to a staircase in the background, while in the foreground there is some strange machinery and two red turtle-people bathing in stone tubs Blue turtle people are walking around carrying vats and attending to the machines while Amara, Sunaro and their goon descend the stairs. The Enterprise crew have landed on the dais. The narration box reads “And as Amara releases Lt. Uhura, the floor under them caves in and they find themselves in the serum laboratory...” Spock or possibly Kirk is saying, “So this is it! An ingenious people, the Floe I...” while Dr. Krisp says, “The serum is given them through osmosis, by a simple process through their skins—by just bathing!”]

‘Ingenious’ is not the word I would use to describe these people.

Amara and Sunaro come downstairs and ask Kirk what he plans to do now (I guess they’ve just given up on stopping him). Kirk wants them to free all the blue turts and give the serum to everyone, which of course they refuse to do, because the blue turts are so inferior they’d just wreck everything. So Dr. Krisp (I think—it’s a little hard to tell with everyone wearing those suits) yells out to the blue turts that they bring a message from the turts in the Blue Chamber: they need the serum to survive. One would...sort of think the blue turts would know that already.

But apparently all that the blue turts needed to spark a rebellion was a message from a random person telling them something they should have already been well aware of, because they yell out that this is what they’ve been waiting for, and start smashing the vats of serum and attacking the red turts. As the brawl spills out across the city, the landing party sneak out and beam back to the Enterprise.

Back on the ship, Scotty (who was apparently just about to send backup) asks why the heck Kirk just left the turts down there in the middle of a civil war. “As you know, it’s against the laws of the Federation to interfere with any planet we set out to explore,” Kirk explains. Yeah, it’s perfectly fine to start a civil war, but stopping one? Out of the question.

As Kirk continues, though, it wasn’t just that old Prime Directive thing that made them leave. He explains that Floe 1 is doomed anyway—it’s moving away from its sun quicker than the turts can produce the serum, and will soon end “in ice and then nothingness.” The turts, red and blue, all knew that they had only a few days left to live, and could have been saved if they had asked the Federation for help earlier. But the red turts were more concerned with going down in history as an ideal people, hence wanting the last report to the Federation to be about how great they were. An entire species too busy fighting each other and trying to advance their own interests to avert death by climate disaster? Ha ha, that would never happen. This sci-fi stuff, so implausible.

Scotty can’t understand why the turts would spend their last few days fighting a war when they know they’re all going to die soon anyway. Spock explains.

[ID: Spock saying to Scotty, “I believe Earth people have a word for it, Scotty, a word missing in the Vulcan dictionary—that word is hope!”]

“It’s a word which does not appear in the Vulcan dictionary, which is why I just used it in a context that frankly makes no sense.”

Thus ends another story of the GK Enterprise crew screwing up an entire planet. The Wacky Aliens Who Hate Each Other For Being Different Colors plot might have worked a little better if they hadn’t made the entire human cast white. Including Uhura. I think I still would’ve been just as confused at the end of it, though.

#Star Trek #Star Trek Gold Key #GK 27 Ice Journey #recap tag #star trek gold key recaps #GK 27 Ice Journey recap

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swampgallows · 6 years ago

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it’s actually kind of... hurtful, i guess, because i know my music sounds like nightcore circus music or whatever the fuck and it’s entirely tongue in cheek totally bonkers daycare childish bullshit, and i wear clown clothes n shit, and i KNOW how it looks to everyone else, but the rave scene and happy hardcore and kandi and all of that means SO much to me and it is a pivotal part of my being. i would not be myself without it, it’s a huge part of who i am and it’s where i derive most of my uninhibited joy from. but people just see garbage when they look at me or my clothing or my kandi because it’s cheap and childish to them.

and i mean, the “amateur-ity” is part of the aesthetic of raving, anyway, it’s the entire crux of why me and my friends have such an affinity for the 90s etc; it prioritized DIY, it was about doing what you wanted and doing it for yourself and being self-reliant and self-producing only because you, individually, had a vision, and only you could make it the way you wanted it. so even if it didn’t turn out like you expected or like others would have expected, the point was that you did it yourself and that you made it happen. a lot of the aesthetic of the rave scene champions utility and DIY and that reminds me to give myself a fucking break with my gifted-child 100% straight-A upbringing where everything has to be perfect and if I don’t excel immediately on the first try then i might as well just slit my throat; you’d see the rave flyers that looked “so unprofessional” or whatever but that was the charm to them, that was how you know that real-ass people were throwing it. you look at like the JNCO graphics with their rudimentary photoshop knowledge and Graphic Design 101, or any of the y2k shit where everybody had just discovered Bryce and Reboot-esque textureless CGI was the hot new commodity—orbs and chrome everywhere—and that’s what made it so cool. people unabashedly were happy about celebrating the new cool shit instead of thinking about how it was going to be outdated in 6 months or any of the other cynicism that comes from a hyper-technological era like we’re currently in.

so like, yeah i don’t make the super-polished soft painterly shit that everyone else on tumblr with their thousand elf OCs makes, nor can i hold a candle to the photorealism of wei wang or the hi-res rendering of glenn rane or whatever, but i know that what I’M making is what NOBODY else is making, and the less i feel in competition with the literally infinite amount of artists on the internet, the more i can concentrate and actually MAKE shit instead of getting caught up and suffocated by my own perfectionism. cause you know what happens when you leave everything to fuckin graphic design ~professionals~? you know what happens when the main focus on your music is the “production value” and fidelity of your VSTs instead of, god forbid, maybe using a retooled drumloop sampled from a 70s funk record? This shit.

do you consider that shit art, or advertising? do you want to keep those flyers? do you give a shit about what’s on them? do they grab your attention or do they just say “Hey, this font says ‘here’s a place you can get ecstasy’”? like, can you imagine if someone handed you a dreamscape flyer in 2018? your head would fucking explode.

“this looks like it’s trying to get me to join a cult...” GOOD. IT SHOULD. IT’S A FUCKING RAVE PARTY DUDE. it’s going to be off the fucking CHAIN. but dreamscape parties were fuckin huge, im talkin also about those seriously underground flyers with drug puns hidden in the names of bootleg licensed characters, like fuckin “rice KrispEs” and shit. im talkin about those ultra cheese flyers with how to draw manga-lookin ravers on them and existing cartoon characters with kandi painted on in Flash or MSPaint and free fonts with photoshop filters out the ASS, called whack-ass cryptic shit like “SPARKLE” or “BOUNCE” or “COTTON CAND*E”

these right here are exactly the kind of abominations i’m talkin about. there were a lot more ‘anime’ flyers in the early 00s but i can’t seem to find a lot of them (butterfly ball specifically comes to mind, advertising a BOUNCE HOUSE n shit like that, had some limited too-lookin girl in phats w butterfly wings; my ex/abuser told me about how he said he’d promo for the party and threw half the flyers in the front seat of a broken-in car and the other half in the trash.)

but look at that shit dude. that is ART. that’s stuff people kept because it, in and of itself, was a piece of artwork, a piece of the culture. flyers for parties now are basically made to be thrown away. even digital flyers for event pages had more work put into them ten years ago than they do now.

i mean yeah im kinda doin the nostalgia goggles thing, i dont mean to be like “IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER BACK THEN” but there was actually an ability, for one, for people to do things themselves. kids could move out at 18. the dot com bubble had yet to burst. and rave was new and wild and hard for feds to control, and as technology kept advancing the music only got crazier and more experimental. now things have kinda plateaued, really, and even clubs and DJs push more for fine-tuning tracks over producing anything with any real artistry or experimentation or, well, soul. people aren’t makin shit like sesame’s treet anymore for the laughs even though we have exponentially less to lose (you can just throw shit up on soundcloud for free for god’s sake; even sesame’s treet was pressed to wax).

but then again, maybe soundcloud mumble rap is the closest this generation will get to grunge, garageband (and other DAWs like ableton etc) becoming aptly named substitutes.

#long post #blathering #rave shit

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halsteadproperty · 6 years ago

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Small Business Spotlight Series: Best Ice Cream Shops in the NY Metro Area

Sweltering temperatures, heat vapors rising from the black tar streets, wafts of cool air hitting you as you pass open storefronts; the summer heat in the city can wear you down. Yet, there is always one common treat that will serve as Ol Reliable – and that is the cool taste of ice cream. From gelato to sorbet, sundaes to Italian ice, our agents all around NY, NJ and CT have the best recommendations for your next summer treat.

The Lemon Ice King of Corona

52-02 108th St, Corona, NY 11368

When you want some fun, a change of scenery and the perfect cool treat on the dog days of summer, look no further than The Lemon Ice King of Corona, Queens! “This family owned business with a homemade, secret recipe offers 100 flavors of the best Italian ices in all of New York, dare I say the world!” says agent Maryann Johnson. “On a hot summer night, my girlfriends and I would get in the car and drive on the LIE to 108th Street Corona and order not one, but two or three of the most flavorful, homemade, fresh summer flavors, like lemon, coconut, watermelon, mango and so much more!” The Lemon Ice King has been a unique and colorful dessert destination for over 60 years. Stay and enjoy your ice while watching a traditional and competitive Bocce game in Spaghetti Park, or head over to Citi Field and cheer on the NY Mets.

(Recommended by Maryann Johnson of our Upper West Side office)

Milkcraft

1215 Post Rd, Fairfield, CT 06824

“New technology ice cream with lots of novelty makes Milkcraft a Connecticut staple,” says agent Sheila Higgins. The trendy creamery freezes every scoop to order with food grade Liquid Nitrogen, which creates smaller ice crystals when freezing, and results in the smoothest possible ice cream. Their caramelized Hong Kong style waffles are made from scratch to order and their hot Creamee buns are made fresh daily, along with artisan toppings.

(Recommended by Sheila Higgins of our Wilton office)

Emack and Bolio’s

389 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10026

Emack & Bolio’s is so good that The New York Times called it “an ice cream shop with more than a lick of promise” and Good Housekeeping labeled them as “the best ice cream purveyors in the country.” Talk about a seal of approval. According to agents Keith Marder and Olga Bidun of the OK Team, their best flavors include ice cream based Deep Purple Chip, S’Moreo, salted caramel chocolate pretzel, chunk of funk and grasshopper pie as well as “The Original Oreo.” They also have sorbet and low-fat options. “Most flavors have great texture with the addition of Oreos, chips, pretzels, etc. and for some added crunch you can get a gargantuan waffle cone dipped in things like Nutella, Cookie Krisp cereal, sprinkles and Capt’n Crunch,” says the team.

(Recommended by the Olga and Keith Team of our West Side office)

Sugar Hill Creamery

184 Lenox Ave, New York, NY 10026

An indie ice cream shop in Harlem, this family-owned spot offers scoops (including non-dairy varieties) in both familiar and creative flavors.

“They use really high-end ingredients and have funky, savory flavors. In the summer they need to have an employee making ice cream all night long to keep up with summer demand.” – Jeffrey Green of our Harlem office

“Sugar Hill Creamery has an old-fashioned neighborhood feel with an artsy flair from the mural on the wall to the roasted corn and jalapeno flavors. The owners are there scooping and greeting folks at the door!” - Leanne Stella of our Harlem office

Saugatuck Sweets

575 Riverside Ave, Westport, CT 06880

A unique spot located in the beautiful river-front inlet neighborhood of Saugatuck in Westport, Connecticut. Nothing like a moonlit night sky near the waterfront and an awesome ice cream cone creation of your own making,” says agent Sheila Gallo. Saugatuck Sweets is within walking distance from the train and serves as an easy night out of Manhattan.

(Recommended by Sheila Gallo of our Westport office)

Anopoli Ice Cream Parlor and Family Restaurant

6920 3rd Ave Brooklyn NY, 11209

In an age of trendy ice-cream shops dishing up exotic flavors, agent Shira Rosenhaft always loves to visit this tried and true time capsule of a diner and soda fountain that happens to make their own ice cream, too. It’s like stepping back in time - the Kelly-green booths are the perfect place to enjoy an old-fashioned sundae or a root beer float, and much of the place looks unchanged since the early 1900s. The ice-cream flavors are simple - chocolate, vanilla, pistachio - but delicious. And, its central location amongst the hustle and bustle of Third Avenue’s shops and restaurants in Bay Ridge makes it the perfect spot to stop and cool off.

(Recommended by Shira Rosenhaft of our Global Services office)

Ample Hills Creamery

623 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Extraordinary ice cream is an understatement when it comes to Halstead favorite, Ample Hills Creamery. At one point in time cows grazed on Brooklyn's lush ample hills. Although the cows are gone, and the grassy hills have made way for rows of brownstones, the pastoral small-town spirit of old Brooklyn lives on at our neighborhood ice cream shops and in the playful, nostalgic flavors we create.

“What makes Ample Hills ice cream special is the mix-ins. My personal favorite is the Pistachio Brittle. They make pistachio brittle (think “peanut brittle”) and put large chunks of it in wonderfully flavored pistachio ice cream. The flavors are creative and unique with fun names and again, those mix-ins!” – Jenet Levy of our Park Avenue office

“The Ample Hills Creamery down on Union Street in Gowanus is a favorite stop. Located at the corner of Union and Nevins, it stands out as an oasis in the post-industrial landscape. And of course, the Ice Cream is fantastic.” - Lisa Gaytan of our North Slope office

“Flavors change regularly, and they are currently offering Oooy Gooy Butter Cake and PB Wins the Cup among many others - plain and fancy!” - Perri Defino of our Bed-Stuy office

“Best ice cream by far is Ample Hills. Specifically, the vibe of the Vanderbilt Avenue location. Peppermint Patty with hot fudge is to die for. My boys always go for Chocolate Milk and Cookies and my husband is partial to Salted Crack Caramel. The staff is always full of energy, super nice and the cone size is enormous! Gets my vote for best ice cream in NYC!” - Karen Wolfe of our Park Slope office

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory

1 Water Street Brooklyn, NY 11201

What is better than waterfront ice cream with views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge? “The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is one of Brooklyn’s best ice cream shops,” agent Jared Goodloe says. Whether you are taking the ferry after a long day, walking your dog along the pier, or just out on the town Brookly Ice Cream Factory is the perfect stop. “Due to high demand, the line can be a little long but don’t let that stop you. The factory has a vast assortment of flavors and toppings to fit all your desires,” Goodloe says.

(Recommended by Jared Goodloe of our Park Slope office)

Gofer Ice Cream

1020 Boston Post Rd, Darien, CT 06820

Gofer Ice Cream opened in 2004 in the heart of Darien on picturesque main street. People passing by can see families enjoying their unique products like Gofer Lite, Go-Yo, Milk Shakes, Razzles, Gofer Cakes and more. It is a favorite spot for locals to walk or bike into town for a summer treat. The shop features a few small tables inside, but most people prefer to sit out on the patio watching the buzz downtown. They have been so successful that agent Cheryl Williams placed them in a second location in Wilton, CT in 2014 near the Wilton High School, Wilton Deli and adjacent to the football field. You can hear kids across town asking their parents if they can "Go Fer" ice cream tonight!

(Recommended by Cheryl Williams of our Darien office)

UES

1707 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10128

This ice cream shop is like no other (keep reading for the secret info!). The large neon cone awning strikes you from a distance along with the typical line of patrons eagerly awaiting entrance, but nothing is what is seems. The vibrant and cozy bubble-gum pink shop offers a unique rotating menu of delicious flavors such as banana brownie, ginger and espresso cookie coupled with chocolate chip and M&M cones. Why is everyone dressed to impress for ice cream? Say the magic words and you are transformed to an elegant 1920s prohibition-style speakeasy behind the mystery door serving decadent cocktails at the large bar or tufted banquets outfitted with chandeliers, exposed brick and other classy homages to Upper East Side culture. Contact Rory for the secret password!

(Recommended by Rory S. Clark of our Village office and Elissa Drassinower of our West Side office)

Sundaes and Cones

95 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003

“On East 10th St. in the East Village is the best ice cream shop I have ever encountered,” agent Robert Brody says. Though located on a side street, it still attracts a big following. The scoops can be in a cup or cone. “Though a bit pricey, it is worth the extravagance,” explains Brody.

(Recommended by Robert A. Brody of our East Hampton office)

Fro-Yo

43 S Euclid Ave, Montauk, NY 11954

Katie Haggerty’s favorite spot on Euclid street in Montauk is Fro-Yo & Gelato. “It’s right next to the jitney spot and the minute you arrive to Montauk you are welcomed to the best little ice cream spot,” she explains. The days you leave Montauk you grab your treats at Fro-Yo and back to reality, leaving your happy place in Montauk.

(Recommended by Katie Haggerty of our East Hampton office)

Scoop Du Jour

35 Newtown Ln, East Hampton, NY 11937

Snuggled amidst all the beautiful high-end shops and restaurants is Scoop Du Jour, a tiny shop on Newtown Lane and one of Margaret Turner’s favorite ice cream spots. “When you walk in to the narrow shop you feel like you’re back in the 70's with the dim lighting, the old posters and pictures of earlier times in East Hampton and the old rod iron chairs with lumpy cushions. But you’ll delight on the yummy ice cream in over 15 flavors and tons of different toppings,” says Turner. If you don't feel like ice cream, you can order a good old grill cheese sandwich or burger.

(Recommended by Margaret Turner of our East Hampton office)

Brendan's 101

101 Rowayton Ave, Rowayton, CT 06853

Brendan's has continued its 133-year tradition as the centerpiece of village activity. “Whether a grocery store, library, arts center, lobster house, antique house or the gathering place for the "Rising Sons of Temperance" to keep liquor out of Rowayton, Brendan’s 101 has always been Rowayton's place to meet,” says agent Gwen Alexis. Now open year-round and offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, it's signature all-natural ice cream remains it's heart and soul. Each year at the town's major fund raiser, the River Ramble, Brendan's donates the coveted "Golden Cone," giving the highest bidder an ice cream cone a day for life! To date there are 30 "Golden Cones" in existence.

(Recommended by Gwen Alexis of our Darien office)

Van Leeuwen

48 1/2 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003

The Classic Michel Cluizel chocolate ice cream is to die for! Homemade dark chocolate fudge and chunks of homemade gooey chocolate chip brownies is such a rich treat, no other chocolate ice cream compares! The vegan ice cream in coffee flavor is a winner too! You will be in heaven on earth!” – Roni Pall of our Cobble Hill office

(Recommended by Fern Hammond of our Park Avenue office and Roni Pall of our Cobble Hill office)

Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain

513 Henry St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

“They serve Adirondack Creamery ice cream which is the purest you can get. It was converted from an actual pharmacy and now is set as an old fashioned “soda shoppe.” They have live music and amazing food too.” – Anna Shagalov of our Village office

“This place looks like you walked back in time and the sundaes are unique.” – Marta Quinones

Bischoff's Confectionary

468 Cedar Ln, Teaneck, NJ 07666

The best ice cream in NJ, and in Sabina L. Feiler-Fluger’s opinion, the entire country, is at Bischoff's Confectionary in Teaneck, NJ. Going to Bischoff's was like winning the lottery when she was a kid. “We would select a flavor and sometimes sit at the bar, or at the booths in the back and the ice cream was always served in old school, metal dishes on top of a small white ceramic plate. They still do that today,” explains Sabina. This place is legendary and exactly what you would imagine a traditional ice cream parlor to look like. It opened in 1934, has been family run through generations. It still maintains relics of a 1950's style parlor with wood paneling, an antique mirror with the logo etched on it, two sides to the shop- one with ice cream in a multitude of flavors scooped out of antique metal freezers, and the other side sells candy- chocolates, hard candy, gummies, even toys. “They have the BEST coffee chip ice cream, and all sorts of flavors- basic and unique, even weekly specials,” says Sabina. They have been written up in many publications as one of the top places to go in NJ for ice cream.

(Recommended by Sabina L. Feiler-Fluger of our Hoboken office)

Serendipity 3

225 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022

Divinely decadent and devilishly delectable, Frozen Hot Chocolate is the signature item at Serendipity! In addition, you can find the most outrageous sundaes, milkshakes, cakes, pies, and cookies to satisfy any sweet tooth. “You can’t beat the drugstore sundae at serendipity,” says agent Zoraida Morales.

(Recommended by Zoraida Morales of our Park Avenue office)

Uncle Louie G

157 Prospect Park SW, Brooklyn, NY 11218

From stick ball on the street to sitting on the stoop, out of all the memories, the one treat that made summer what it was, in all its sweet goodness was Italian Ices. Uncle Louie G’s has been a staple in Brooklyn and continues to provide that old-fashioned feeling when you enter. It’s just a great spot on the stroll along the park in Brooklyn.

(Victoria Vinokur of our Park Avenue office)

Dolce Brooklyn

305 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Dolce Brooklyn gelato starts with all natural, award winning milk from the Hudson Valley and only the finest ingredients are added to create our gelato & sorbetto (vegan). Each flavor is made on premise in small batches to ensure freshness. Chef Kristina sources many of the fresh fruits and vegetables from the local farmer's market and other top ingredients from specialty markets. Agent Gerard Splendore recommends the chocolate bourbon gelato!

(Recommended by Gerard Splendore of our Brooklyn Heights office)

L’Albero Dei Gelati

341 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

“They have some of the best gelato that I've eaten outside of Italy. In fact, I like the consistency of the gelato here just a little bit better because it doesn't melt quite as fast.” - Joanna Mayfield Marks

(Recommended by Joanna Mayfield Marks of our Cobble Hill office)

#ice cream #halstead #spotlight series #real estate #NYC #NY #NJ #CT #Ny Metro Area

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orphansgobrrrrrr · 3 years ago

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I literally watched someone in my music class draw a tiny gogy and blob dream on the corner of their paper and I made a little shocked Ranboo on the corner of my page and I slowly pushed it towards them and they smiled and nodded at me- (we are best friends now, we worship a blob axolotl with a diving helmet on named-

Krispe.

Me: *overhears people in my class talking about Dsmp*

Also me: *doesn't wanna be weird and intrude on their conversation so doesn't talk to them and just awkwardly listens*

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zippdementia · 5 years ago

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Part 76 Alignment May Vary: Portents and Prophecies

Welcome to the continuing adventures of Alignment May Vary, our twice a month gaming group! We’ve been playing the same narrative for three years this month, with tons of twists and turns along the way. You can now hear the dramatized episodes at our website, Alignment May Vary.

In the last session, long time player character Aldric was killed by another player character, Imoaza, in an unseen betrayal out in the cold of space. Carrick, the third PC, is unaware of the betrayal as the group tries to figure out what to do about their current predicament.

Days pass. The situation on board the (still unnamed) Surveyor ship goes from desperate to grim. The power surge used to fight off the asteroid spiders has left the ship’s crystal depleted. What fuel they have is being used to keep life systems active, but this will fail within the week and the party is adrift in some unknown corner of space, surrounded only by asteroid dust and the wreckage of previous ships who have become stranded here.

The dreadful monotony, the slow wait for the end, is broken by one major event: a capsule adrift in the wreckage around them suddenly comes to life and starts sending out a signal. Retrieving it and bringing it on board, Carrick and Imoaza find it is a life capsule identical in most ways to the one they saw Carrick’s double in, back on Faerun. That tells them this is Surveyor technology, though it looks older even than that capsule. Carrick, accessing his Surveyor memories, figures out how to open the capsule, to reveal...

... nothing. The capsule is empty.

But it wasn’t empty very long ago. Its inhabitant has the ability to shift through space using the ethereal plane and now he appears beside the party, a hulking humanoid robot with red glowing eyes who raises his hand to stri-- or no, raises it in greeting to Carrick.

“Ah! Greetings. My name is Milosh. Are you the Surveyor?”

“No,” Carrick replies. “At least not the one you are probably looking for.”

“Ah! My visual senses tell me you are a 93% match for the Surveyor. Ah! I have come to serve the surveyor and stop the prophecy.”

Meet Milosh, our new PC (following Shando, Abenthy, Trakki, and Aldric... we’ve had quite a few player characters over the course of this epic).

Milosh, the Seeker of Prophecy

Milosh is a Warforged out of the recent Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberon. He is, visually, a little like a Mechanical Groot. He is, personality wise, a lot like the Paper Clip office assistant from 1997′s Microsoft Word. His backstory is that he was created by one of the Surveyors ages ago, centuries ago, to hunt down and stop a certain prophecy, a prophecy we’ve heard about before, involving the three figures: a devil, an angel, and a dragonborn. But while he was traveling to his destination, which would eventually become known as Faerun, his ship was caught in the Asteroid Spider’s webs and destroyed. He managed to escape and has been floating in stasis ever since. In the ages that have gone by, his memory banks have been damaged and now he cannot recall the full prophecy or even his full abilities. But he does know how to transform his right arm into a variety of weapons and tools and uses this to form a variety of special attacks, including a photon blast and a drill arm.

His personality is a little... simple. He says “Ah!” before every sentence, usually while holding up a finger, and runs off of very literal interpretations of his surroundings, relying on old programs in his working memory banks to get him through situations like combat or social etiquette.

This leads to some awkward (and funny) moments, such as when the party tells Fiona that Aldric has passed. She isn’t sure how to respond and also being a robot doesn’t do the best job of it...

“Where is Aldric? He’s dead?? Oh! I guess... Wow!”

... but she tries to give Milosh some advice, at least. Fiona tells him that bad news is best given with a smile and exuberance. And his response...

“Ah! I am unable to smile.”

The group also tells Milosh about the suspected traitor somewhere on the ship, the one who changed the bearings on the party in the first place, dropping them on Hell, and the one who erased the footage showing evidence of the deed. Milosh agrees to try and help them discover who the traitor is.

Good Moments of Interlude and Development

This session was mostly interlude, originally meant to be a quick connection to the next event, but the players got really into the roleplaying here and so the session became an elongated exploration of the personalities on the ship and their response to the various situations going on. Here are the best moments...

Milosh, with the help of Fiona, tries to access his old memories and also hack into the computer mainframes and learn more information about the traitor. What follows is a fun little hacking mini-game, where Milosh has to devote different levels of energy to different tasks, increasing his chances in some and decreasing it in others, then rolling to see what is successful. Ultimately, he fails to access any thing coherent from his memories, and he also fails to pull out any detailed information about the traitor, but it is still a good moment of personality development for him and gives us a chance to play around with some improvised mechanics. It also sets up the next good scene...

While Milosh plays around inside his head, Carrick and Imoaza decide the best clue they have for discovering the traitor is the ripped piece of leather. They go to talk to Krisp, who has leather gloves, and who the find in the darkened and otherwise empty bridge, staring out into space. This is a good roleplaying moment, as the three of them talk about Aldric. Imoaza keeps her cool and neither of them suspects that she actually murdered Aldric. Krisp is depressed, and asks Carrick if he ever just looked out at it all, at space. He is not his usual boisterous self and is instead contemplative, saying that this is never how a captain thinks they are going to end their days, but now he has captained TWO ships to his death. He also says that it wasn’t fair Aldric had to die, while Krisp had two chances to live his life. Carrick asks about the Horn of Green Company and the horn gets bequeathed to Carrick and renamed the Horn of Silent Sounding, for its power has fallen quiet and it makes no sound. This scene is interrupted by Milosh accidentally tying his memory visions into the bridge mainscreens, replacing the view of the stars with a crazy scene of Nazragul proclaiming his dominion over the world and flashes of an Aasimir and a Tiefling they don’t know. Carrick asks Krisp if he ever knew a Tiefling, and Krisp responds he did, then says it couldn’t possibly be the same one. The whole time, Imoaza is trying to look at Krisp’s gloves, but she ultimately sees no rip or tear.

Carrick meets up with Alyss, who says she wants to celebrate Aldric’s memory. She had built him a bike in secret and planned to teach him to ride, but now instead she gets high with Carrick on some drugs and takes him for a race around an empty cargo bay. The two sit for a long time, reminiscing and bonding until Carrick realizes she always wears a leather jacket. He asks for it, and she thinks he is coming on to her. Thus follows a pretty amazing scene, where Carrick is examining the jacket, then looks up to see Alyss is down to her bra. He is stunned, even more so when she leans in to kiss him. He tells her awkwardly he is a virgin and that he can’t do this, that he isn’t in a headspace to do it. Alyss is surprised and feels a little dumb herself for jumping to conclusions. She ends up telling him it doesn’t have to be awkward between them and not to worry. However, as she is getting dressed, Carrick notices that she has recently covered a hole in her jacket with a new patch. In honor of Aldric (it reads, “The Green Company”) but there is a lingering question now as to her innocence.

There is a funeral for Aldric, with some suitably bad speeches from Krisp. Among the lines he offers are this gem: “We will all be dead soon, but that’s longer than Aldric got.” Milosh accesses his memory banks and uses his vocal processor to play sad music in honor of Aldric. Aldric’s goblin kids are there, Alyss is there... heck, everyone is there except, noticeably, Otto (one of Krisp’s lieutenants). We’ll come back to this in a moment...

Maybe my favorite moment is when Milosh and Carrick hunt down Alyss, with the goal of figuring out if she was the traitor. Milosh asserts he has sensors in his hands that can detect traces of DNA on the leather scrap and, if he can gain physical contact with Alyss, he can see if the DNA is a match. Carrick agrees they should try it and so they find Alyss near her chambers in the mid section of the ship and Carrick introduces her to Milosh.

It’s such a great scene. There is some sexual tension left over between Alyss and Carrick and Alyss plays it up for fun, making Carrick as uncomfortable as possible. Then, knowing Milosh is such an outrageously naive personality makes all of his approaches to the situation hilarious. He boldly sticks out his hand and says (ah!) he understands that humans have a custom wherein they must grip hands when they meet and he would be delighted to try it. Bemused, Alyss takes his proffered hand and Carrick breathes a sigh of relief, thinking they now have their sample. Then Milosh says, “Ah! Now we must stay like this for two minutes.”

“It takes that long to get a sample?!” Carrick whispers in Milosh’s ear.

“Yes,” Milosh explains loudly. “This process takes five minutes to gather the appropriate data.”

Now thoroughly wierded out, Alyss extracts her hand from Milosh’s grip and he fails to get the sample. So then he tries another tact: he asks to see her jacket. Suspicious now, Alyss asks why and Carrick stutters and speaks for him, saying that he’s hoping Milosh can make a copy of it for him to wear. Milosh barely registers that this is an attempt at skullduggery and manages to keep silent until Alyss, after a brief hesitation, agrees to the request. “This your new wingman, Carrick?” she asks, making light of the situation. Carrick doesn’t get the joke. Alyss sighs and explains, “because he got my shirt off for you, again. Nevermind...”

Milosh examines the jacket while Carrick tries to distract Alyss, asking about Otto’s absence from the funeral. She says she hadn’t noticed, but then she hasn’t seen him around in a couple of days.

Suddenly Milosh says, “Ah! Surveyor, I have new information! The sample matches the jacket.”

Now armed with evidence, Carrick turns on Alyss and confronts her, demanding to know why she erased the footage of the ship’s sabotage. She cocks her head and says, as if it’s obvious, “Because I didn’t want you to see that it was me on the footage.”

And right on cue, hearing this, Milosh says, “Ah! Surveyor, I have new information!” As if that wasn’t painfully obvious.

Alyss proceeds to give an explanation for her actions, though not an apology. She says that in life, she was the leader of a powerful cult that worshipped Asmodeus and in death she sought to join his retinue in Hell, only to find he had disappeared during the Blood War. Obsessed with finding him, she wanted to bring to pass the prophecy that the Abyss would return if a devil ever left Hell. To do that, she needed outsiders to come with a ship. She secretly resurrected old technology, excavating it from the deserts around the Hell city, and eventually built herself a ship capable of at least leaving the atmosphere. She also fixed up tech that could detect when a ship would pass through Hell’s space. That is how she found and got onboard the Surveyor’s ship.

“I checked the original coordinates, you know,” she tells Carrick. “It was heading for a corner of space ruled by the Mind Flayers. That would have been a bad fate for you all, if you’d even survived to see it. By the time I boarded your ship, a critical failure had occurred in one of your engines. You had left warp space and were drifting slowly towards your destination on momentum alone. It would have been centuries before you reached it. In a way, I saved you by bringing you down to Hell.”

She further tells him that she has a piece of Asmodeus which she will use to find his body in the Abyss, once the way becomes clear. But she does not elaborate more and, not seeing her as an immediate threat, Carrick lets her go to contemplate what all this might mean.

Moving On

During the funeral Imoaza happens to spot Otto down a corridor and he is acting very strange, walking around stiffly and stopping to stare directly at her. Curious, she follows him down several corridors to a large room where she sees Otto addressing in a foreign language all of the Fiona and Bobs, the androids of the ship, gathered and floating cross legged in the air. Startled, she tries to flee, but suddenly is targeted by a psychic attack! Fending off visions of Aldric and Hecate (for those who don’t remember, that’s her dead daughter, who has been trying to kill her for a while), she runs down the ship’s corridors with Otto in pursuit. He catches up to her, but does not attack. Instead, he explains that he is not Otto, but is simply borrowing Otto’s body to be able to observe the crew and see if they can help his people.

It is soon revealed that Otto has been taken over by a Githzerai psychic, whose myriad companions have also taken over the systems of the Fiona’s and Bobs and who now proceed to hold the players hostage... well, sort of. In a mutually beneficial way.

Essentially, it turns out the players have invaded, by accident (or at least they think it’s by accident), a sector of space that is being fought over by the Githyanki and the Githzerai. The Githyanki have had the upper hand for many years and have captured an ancient Stardock carved out of an asteroid deep in the asteroid field and have essentially barred all ways in. The Githzerai “bored” a new way through the space between space, but their path was discovered recently and retaken by the Githyanki. In this same battle, the leader of the Githzerai lost his son, Ezria, to the Githyanki and Ezria is now being held captive on Stardock. The Githzerai cannot go after him because the Githyanki are scanning for ‘zerai brain patterns and would detect them immediately.

What the ‘zerai want the players to do, therefore, is to send a team of three humanoids into this space-between-space, and from there have them enter and infiltrate Stardock, rescue Ezria, and return. If they succeed in saving their kin, the ‘zerai will help them by using their prodigious powers to recharge their crystal with enough energy to get them to Faerun. This long space journey is nearing its end!

The players agree to this (their only other option, honestly, is to float out here until they become space dust). They are the perfect candidates, besides: a warforged, a yuan-ti, and a half elf with the brain signature of a Surveyor are unusual enough that they will definitely slip under the Githyanki radar.

And so the Githzerai open a portal to the space between worlds and the players teleport through... though not before Immerstal takes Carrick aside and warns him that Imoaza now carries the Rod of Storms and that could be a very dangerous thing for the universe, if she fails to control its power. Or chooses to abuse it.

And one last thing...

Alyss sat crosslegged on the floor of the ventilation chamber, the altar to Asmodeus before her. Her hands were clenched tightly, her nails drawing blood from her palms as she concentrated. With a gasp, she made the connection and opened her eyes as in front of her a portal appeared.

“Took long enough.” The taunting voice of Puck broke her concentration and she turned to him with a snarl.

“It wasn’t easy to tap into the Gith’s power. And it won’t stay open for long.”

The little impish devil hovered in the air lazily, raising a red bushy eyebrow at her. “Are you sure you are ready for this? The abyss is not a place for those who are not fully sure of who they are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What did you tell Carrick about your past? Did you tell him the truth?”

“What I told him doesn’t matter. I know who I am. But more importantly, I know my purpose.” She grunted and rose to her feet. “Coming?”

#dungeons and dungeons #Dnd 5e #Gith #Spelljammer #Alignmentmayvary #Alignment MAy Vary

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lifealert1blog-blog · 6 years ago

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Get Trendy

In society, we see trends everywhere; fashion, cars, movies and believe it or not, even food too! 2019 has brought to light some huge food trends that are gaining followers and steam. Want to know what one’s are worthy of your time ? Keep reading below!

There are a few things in life that are forever trendy and one of those things is safety. If you are an aging senior looking to maintain your independence, Life Alert Protection has been the trendiest medical alert device for over 30 years; just ask any of the hundreds of thousands of customers! So, why is Life Alert all the hype? Well, while wearing their lightweight, waterproof emergency pendant, you can summon an help fast with just one touch of a button. No matter what life threatening emergency you may face, Life Alert’s dispatch team can send you the proper authorities fast, 24/7. Safety is always trendy; stay cool, even in the face of danger by getting Life Alert Protection today!

Everyday Health[1] has gathered several registered dietitian nutritionists to help share the biggest food trends of 2019. Find out what you’ll be seeing in the grocery store aisles and in the magazines next week!

1. Eats With Prebiotic and Probiotic Perks for Better Gut Health: When it comes to getting your fill of gut-healthy probiotics, you now have many options beyond yogurt. Lifeway Kefir spreadable Farmer Cheese is strained from kefir and contains a dozen strains of probiotics. And then there’s Farmhouse Culture’s Kraut Krisps, made from, well, sauerkraut, and oatmeal with heat-resistant probiotics from ThinkThin. Standard probiotic foods include kombucha, kvass, kimchi, and plain kefir itself. Don’t forget about prebiotics, which feed that friendly gut bacteria. Kellogg’s Happy Inside cereal provides both pre- and probiotics, plus fiber to additionally boost gut health. “We are learning more and more about the benefits of a healthy microbiome, so there’s a lot of interest about ways to feed the trillions of bacteria in our guts,” says Samantha Cassetty, RD. The microbiome is the community of bacteria in the gut that may play a role in the development of health conditions such as diabetes, eczema, cancer, and depression, according to the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah.

2. Foods With Sustainable Benefits So You Can Benefit the Planet, Not Just Your Body: “Do good” is a mantra many companies, small and big alike, are standing by these days. General Mills, for instance, set a goal to sustainably source 10 of its top ingredients by the year 2020. It’s currently meeting 76 percent of that goal, with all of its palm oil, 99 percent of its fiber packaging, 81 percent of its U.S. sugar beets, and 67 percent of its U.S. dry milled corn sustainably sourced. This notably impacts its Cheerios and Nature Valley lines. Also, the bottled beverage company Rebbl ethically employs workers and donates 2.5 percent of its net sales to reduce the risk of exploitation and human trafficking. And don’t forget about sustainably sourced eggs. “Vital Farms’ hens are allowed to forage freely, and this keeps the pastures healthy and means harmful chemicals aren’t necessary,” says Cassetty. “It’s a win for the animals, a win for the environment, and a win for egg lovers because pasture-raised eggs have more vitamins and minerals than eggs produced in other ways.”

3. Convenience Superfoods for When You’re On the Go: It’s now easier than ever to eat healthy when you’re in a hurry. Don’t have time to prepare sweet potato toast from scratch? Caulipower just launched frozen slices that you just pop into the toaster oven. You also have no excuses to skip the whole grains, since you can buy single-serving bowls of microwave quinoa from Minute Rice. And if you're looking for a little extra nutritional oomph from your nut butter, Probar offers single-serve packets of almond butter with berry powder (think acai and more) for extra antioxidants. “We are seeing a trend toward more plant-based eating and people wanting whole-food ingredients, but consumers are still busy and need convenience,” says Bannan. “I’m happy to see new products that make it easier for consumers to embrace healthy eating on the go.”

4. New Plant-Based Milks From Surprising Sources: Looking for a plant-based milk? Your options now include much more than almond and soy milk. From banana to walnut to hemp, hazelnut, oat, and flaxseed milk, products now exist to suit almost any dietary preference and need. "People always love a trend, and plant-based is the hottest trend right now, fueling the desire for multiple plant-based milk sources,” says Kyle. “Certain plant-based milks, like banana milk or oat milk, are appealing to consumers because they are generally free of many of the top eight allergens that are typically present in more traditional milks like almond or soy. Look for oat milk from Oatly, walnut and hazelnut milks from Elmhurst 1925, pecan milk from MALK, flax milk from Manitoba Milling Co., and banana milk from Mooala. Wondering why your alternative milk’s label says “milked nuts” or “malk”? It’s because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of likely banning all nondairy milks from using “milk” in their names. Note that while banana milk is delicious and provides nutrients like blood-pressure-helping potassium, you’ll typically get more satiating protein from a nut- or seed-based milk. For an easily accessible source of protein, opt for calcium-rich dairy milk. Check the nutrition facts label to choose a milk that meets your nutritional needs.

5. Innovative Lactose-Free Dairy Products That Go Beyond Milk: Food for people with specific dietary needs is plentiful right now. That includes lactose-free dairy — and we’re not talking just milk. You can now find lactose-free cottage cheese, kefir, and yogurt from Green Valley Creamery. And Cabot Cheese boasts a “lactose-free” label on several of its cheeses, including aged Cheddar and Colby Jack. “Certain health conditions may prevent [some people] from enjoying traditional forms of food, like certain bovine dairy-based milk, and they are increasingly interested in the alternative options coming to the marketplace,” says Kyle.

6. More Keto-, Paleo- and Low-FODMAP-Friendly Foods: Many people are either interested in specific eating styles or increasingly aware of their own dietary sensitivities. That’s why you’ll find many convenience foods tailored to low-FODMAP eating patterns — meaning these foods avoid ingredients that tend to trigger IBS symptoms, such as onion, garlic, and even gluten. Fody offers low-FODMAP salsa, ketchup, salad dressings, and more, while Rachel Pauls sells low-FODMAP bars, jerky, and spices. Even Prego offers a Sensitive Recipe pasta sauce sans onions and garlic. “I think we’re finally moving away from [only] calories and numbers,” says Cynthia Sass, RD, MPH. “My clients want to know more about the functional benefits of foods, including how they impact digestive health, immunity, sleep, energy, and mental focus. More consumers are now connecting food choices with everyday quality-of-life outcomes, and labels that offer more information can help make that easier.” You’ll also find food labels promoting specific dietary patterns, such as paleo and keto. Think grain-free paleo snack puffs from Lesser Evil and multiple brands offering keto-specific products. Of course, be sure to talk to your doctor before trying any restrictive diet plan, including keto and paleo!

7. Protein-Powered Foods to Help You Crush Your Next Gym Sesh: Protein is all the rage, and here’s why: It helps keep you fuller for longer, helping to fight the urge to snack all day long and also providing fuel for your workouts. You’ll find YQ by Yoplait plain yogurt made with ultra-filtered milk, offering 17 grams of protein per 5.3-ounce single-serve container; collagen-based coffee creamer from Vital Proteins; and ready-to-drink soups with collagen protein from Zupa Noma.

8. More Classic, Go-to Snacks in Healthier Whole-Grain Varieties: You won’t find only the typical whole grains in your bread, pasta, and snack food nowadays. Think of lentils, rice, and pea protein blended in a gluten-free pasta from Modern Table, sorghum-based gluten-free pretzels from Quinn Snacks, and soup featuring whole-grain pasta from Campbell’s. “People recognize that whole grains are much more nutritious than refined grains, so they’re prioritizing these when shopping for packaged products,” says Cassetty. “One brand I love is Quinn Snacks. Since they’re made with whole grains, I feel good about giving them to my son and recommending them to clients looking for a healthier snack, in moderation. I also like their microwave popcorn because unlike other brands, the toppings are added after it’s popped.”

9. Packaged Foods That Make It Easier to Eat More Plants: The plant-based packaged-food category is more expansive than ever. “The plant-based movement ties into a number of trending consumer priorities, including health protection, environmental stewardship, and ethically driven eating,” Sass says. “My clients constantly tell me they feel better physically and feel good about how they are spending their food dollars when they eat more plant-based foods.” When it comes to new finds, think pumpkin seed butter from 88 Acres, algae oil from Thrive, chia seed oil from Lekithos, and even dark-chocolate-covered chickpeas from Biena.

10. Almost-Ready-to-Eat Healthy Breakfasts: Frozen and other quick-cooking lunches and dinners have been on offer for years. But convenient, almost ready-to-eat balanced breakfasts haven’t been as plentiful in the supermarket aisles — that is, until now. Many of these are in bowl and mug form. You can pick up a Dr. Praeger’s bowl with egg whites and or an Amy’s Kitchen bowl with tofu, quinoa, meatless sausage, and vegetables. And Kodiak Cakes now sells whole-grain flapjack microwave mug cups. “Health-conscious consumers don’t want to eat bagels, pastries, or sugary cereals for breakfast,” says Sass. “I think we’ll see more products that marry nutrition and convenience, and fit a category I refer to as ‘homemade for you,’ meaning simple ingredients you could have combined yourself but didn’t have to because someone prepared them for you.”

All those new health trends are food for thought! But while you work hard to stay trendy and put the good stuff on the inside; do you have anything to protect you on the outside? If you are an aging senior who is currently looking for a way to maintain your independence, it is time to check out Life Alert Protection. While wearing their emergency pendant you can summon an help fast with just one touch of a button. No matter if you encounter a home invasion, a home fire or even a serious fall, Life Alert’s dispatch team can send you the proper authorities fast. Plus, with 24/7 service, you can feel secure that your personal protection is in place no matter when danger may strike. Safety will always be trendy; get the best by getting Life Alert Protection today! Call 1-800-513-2934 for a free brochure.

Works Cited:

1. Gorin, Amy. “The Top 10 Healthy-Food Trends to Expect in 2019.” Everyday Health. 18 December 2018. <https://www.everydayhealth.com/pictures/top-healthy-food-trends/#foods-with-sustainable-benefits-so-you-can-benefit-the-planet-not-just-your-body >.

[1]

#60+ Aging elder protection Health care independent living life alert medical alert medical emergency response senior assisted living senior

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actualteammom · 8 years ago

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Biases in general lol

Thank you for tagging me @yakirei ^-^

A. ALWAYS POST THE RULES. Answer all the questions and then write 11 new ones.

B. Tag 11 new people

My bias: V/Taehyung

My bias Group: Super Junior

Yes, I am very well aware that my bias is not from my bias group, and yet I love both of them immensely. Deal with it.

Q1. What’s your favorite hair color on your bias?

My favorite is either his light brown hair for YNWA era, his lilac hair for War of Hormone era, or his black hair.

Q2. Do you consider yourself a hard stan or a soft stan of your bias group?

I’m like a medium rare stan. If this makes any sense, I’m a soft stan for them, but I’m a hard stan about them. Like when thinking about them/watching performances (for them), I’m a soft stan, but when talking about them/making sure that they’re not considered irrelevant (about them), I’m a hard stan.

Q3. Do you own any K-pop albums? If so, which one(s)? If not, what K-pop albums would you like to own?

Okay, so the list would be so long if I listed them all, so I’ll just say that I own a lot. If you’re actually interested in what I own, please feel free to message me.

Albums that I want to own are SHINee’s The Misconceptions of Us, Infinite’s Infinite Only, EXID’s Street, and B.A.P’s Rose. (and SM Station’s Season 1 if that counts)

Q4. Do you try to learn the Korean lyrics to the songs if you don’t speak the language? And if you do speak Korean, the question instead is what do you think is/would be the hardest thing about learning Korea/about the language?

I guess it depends on the song. I sometimes try to learn the Korean lyrics for my biases’ lines, so I can sing along with them, but most of the time, I just suffer (and mumble along) and then rock the English lines.

Q5. What are your favorite covers K-pop idols have done? Post links with the answer(s).

This is in no particular order:

Ailee, Hyorin, and Jessie - Bang Bang

Minhyuk, Youngjae, Minhyuk, and Bambam - Bad Girl, Good Girl

Seventeen - U

BTS - As I Told You

Jiyeon, Zhoumi, Hongbin - My Ear’s Candy

GOT7 - This Love

Q6. Have you ever tried learning any K-pop dance routines? Was it successful? Did you upload a dance cover anywhere?

Jinkernoodle was learning f(x)’s Four Walls and taught me the first third of the dance which I have since forgotten. I also know (sort of) the main dance routines for songs like Sorry, Sorry, Cheer Up, Abracadabra, and others. I wouldn’t say they were successful, and I haven’t uploaded any dance covers because I value my self esteem too much to do that.

Q7. List on of your favorite things about your bias’ physical appearance and one of your favorite things about their personality/mannerisms/habits:

- his boxy smile

- his ability to radiate actual warmth/make others happy without even trying

- the fact that he’s so family oriented and loves his family so dearly is so wonderful

Q8. Is there a particular member of your bias group/any K-pop group in general that you think the group couldn’t live without and why? ~ (so it doesn’t necessarily have to be the leader)

For Super Junior, I think it’s Eunhyuk because of his natural leadership skills he exhibited when Leeteuk left for the military, as well as his ability to create fun times wherever he goes. He’s just someone who really, really cares for Super Junior, and I wish others would see it more. That being said, everyone in Super Junior is very well loved (yes, even Hangeng, Kibum, Zhoumi, and Henry; fight me on this) and anyone leaving is very awful for all the members.

Q9. Can you describe your bias wrecker as best as you can without mentioning their name so we have to guess? If you’re a faithful stan, is there an idol outside of your bias group that you admire?

Bias wrecker: He plays the innocent card, but then wants to be seen as manly instead of cute. He uses his weaknesses to his advantage, but then turns around and roasts his members effortlessly. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, and his determination to succeed is commendable.

Q10. What are the three things you’d want your bias/bias group to know about you?

- for SJ, I will always support you so fucking get married. y’all are so family oriented, so follow Sungmin’s lead and find someone, dammit!

- for Tae, I love your happy boxy smiles, so I want you to put yourself first sometimes. I don’t care if you think you have a responsibility to your fans or repaying your parents, you need to think about yourself more.

- in general, I am a broke and tired college student, so if y’all could possibly, just maybe, have a concert that’s closer than a day’s drive from me, that would be more than wonderful. I live in the US where you can drive for four hours and still be in the same goddamn state, so I would appreciate it if you would not go to the same three cities every time you visit. also don’t forget about Europe. they’re waiting (not so) patiently for your arrival.

Q11. There wasn’t a question 11…

NEW QUESTIONS

Q1. What song/group got you interested in K-pop?

Q2. What are your favorite songs? They don’t have to be from your bias/bias group either. They could be OSTs as well.

Q3. What concept is your favorite concept?

Q4. Are you a loyal stan (one true bias) or one who has a bias for every group you like?

Q5. What collaboration do you want to see?

Q6. What is your favorite variety show?

Q7. Were you dragged into K-pop or were you the dragger? Or both?

Q8. Do you support idols dating?

Q9. What would you have your bias write on an album if given the chance?

Q10. Do you mainly listen to male groups, female groups, or about an equal combination?

Q11. Do you also listen to music outside of K-pop? If so, what do you like?

I forgot how long it takes to create new questions. I’m exhausted now.

Tagging: @aspiring-ssr-agent, @jinkernoodle, @candradm, @uniqs-topp, @summer-seoulstice, @suga-kookie-krisp, @happybdaygyu, @verhoon, @svtsdad, @taesstory @1991shinwoo

#tag #mine #this is so long

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tired-alpaca-blog · 8 years ago

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Tag thingy

Rules: Complete the questions and say who tagged you in the beginning. When you’ve finished, tag people to do this survey. Have fun and enjoy!! Tagged by @denialanderror Are you named after anyone? No, my parents just fancied the name When was the last time you cried? Maybe around 5:00 o'clock today Do you like your handwriting? no, but my handwriting ranges from print to cursive What is your favourite lunch meat?: chicken 🍗 Do you have kids?: Nah If you were another person, would you be friends with you?: I'm amazing who wouldn't want to be Do you use sarcasm?What kind of question is that ? Do people NOT use sarcasm .what an odd concept . Do you still have your tonsils? Im pretty sure Would you bungee jump?: On my bucket list What is your favourite kind of cereal: it would have to be either rabbit poo(nestle chocolate balls), rice krispes or bran flakes (cos im a basic bitch) Do you untie your shoe laces when you take them off? : yes or it makes putting them on the next day a lot harder Do you think you’re a strong person?: i could lift a small bag of potatoes,like really small What is your favourite ice cream? Give me some ben and jerrys Cookie dough or Carte dór vanilla What is the first thing you notice about people? Eyes and smile What is your least favourite physical thing you like about yourself? My nose What colour pants and shoes are you wearing right now? Not wearing any shoes but im wearing grey pants (trouser?) What are you listening to right now? Coaster by Khalid If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Dark green or Silver Favourite smell?: Here goes: books, salted caramel , chocolate, rain, autumn,fire, winter air , coffee , coffee grounds Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My dad asking me to help him with the groceries (the lift was out of order so we had to climb 8 flights of stairs , until the fourth floor with like 7 heavy bags) Favourite sport to watch: The Footie Hair colour: light brown/ dark blonde Eye colour: Dark brown. Do you wear contacts? No Favourite food to eat: All food or curry Scary movies or comedy? Neither but i prefer scary at the moment Last movie you watched?: Don't hang up (it was so good!!!) What colour shirt are you wearing? Grey Summer or winter? Winter Hugs or kisses: Hugs What book are you currently reading? A Song Of Ice and fire . If we were to include the books I haven't finished the list would be endless Who do you miss right now? Nobody. What is on your mousepad? I don't have one What is the last tv programme you watched: Supernatural What’s the best sound? Rain against the window , wind blowing, leaves crunching underfoot , a satisfied sigh, fire crackling, cats purring Rolling Stones or Beatles? Can’t choose. What’s the furthest you’ve travelled? Albania Do you have a special talent? I'm double jointed in my hands but other than that im pretty much talentless trash Where were you born? In a hospital ? In London ? I tag : @imhereforbvcky @radical1995 @phabulousmacy any of my mutuals

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togachipblog · 7 years ago

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May Potato Chips

The earth continues its annual trip around the sun and we have now reached the month of May. I thought it would be interesting to write about potato chip brands/companies that include the work "May" and found two of them: 1) The May Potato Chip Company; and 2) The Ethel May. Ralph and Dorothy May ran a small business called the Kurly Krisp Potato Chip Company at 3111 Holmes, in Kansas City, MO. See the photo of the building in the 1940 Kansas City Tax Assessment photograph collection. If you look carefully, you can just make out the company name on the building windows and delivery truck.

Later they founded the May Potato Chip Company which is first listed in the 1942 Kansas City, MO City Directory at 2214 McGee with Ralph E. May as President and Mrs. Dorothy May as Secretary-Treasurer. Ralph May died of lung cancer in 1945 (death certificate and obituary are attached) and it appears that Dorothy took over the business.

In 1948, Dorothy remarrried to Ernest L. Strauss (marriage license attached), but Ernest died in 1958 (death certificate attached). In 1958, the company was sold to Red Dot. See the articles. It's difficult to track Dorothy after 1958, but according to Find-A-Grave, she eventually died in California in 1987: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146773582

See the map including the location of the potato chip plant. Enjoy the gallery of newspaper ads for the company. Note that they used the "Ruffles' brand prior to the time it was acquired by Frito-Lay.

Special thanks to Kate Hill, Senior Archivist at the Kansas City Public Library who materially contributed to both the research and the drafting of this post. I found a reference to "The Ethel May" Potato Chips in an old newspaper from Fitchburg, MA, and contacted the Lunenburg Historical Society to help me research this. James Larkin of the Historical Society determined that “The Ethel May” was a restaurant on Whalom Pond lakefront. It was there from approximately 1927 to 1935. After 1935, the Ethel May became the “Fountain of Youth” restaurant. It actually was in Leominster MA across from the Lake Whalom boat ramp there. The restaurant building is still there, converted to a residence (see the photo).

t’s at the junction of Main St & Lakeside Ave, Leominster MA. Whalom Park was the site of an old amusement park, Whalom Park. You can read more about it at http://massachusettspaddler.com/whalom-pond.

See an old commercial for Whalom Park.

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Making chips in a lakeside restaurant is reminiscent of the site where potato chips were purported to be invented, Moon's Lake House on Saratoga Lake in Saratoga Springs, NY. Like Whalom Pond, Saratoga Lake was the home of an amusement park, Kaydeross Park. Both amusement parks are now housing developments. Enjoy the gallery of old Fitchburg Sentinel newspaper ads for "The Ethel May" restaurant including the tagline “See them fried.”

Enjoy the Temptations singing "My Girl." One of the lyrics is " When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May."

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The Toga Chip Guy

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zippdementia · 5 years ago

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Part 75 Alignment May Vary: Existential Terror

Welcome back to our long running adventures in and beyond the world of Toril and the Forgotten Realms! Did you know you can now listen to our adventures as a radio play? Click here to check it out!

Aldric stared past Imoaza at the dark expanse of space. It was infinite. He hadn’t really believed in the word until now, but there was not other way to describe it. It wasn’t fully black. A carpet of stars dusted it everywhere. But they didn’t break the feeling of endlessness. They, too, in fact seemed endless.

“It won’t take Carrick long,” Imoaza assured him.

Aldric smiled, thinking of some quip he could make. It never does, he was thinking, and maybe winking to tie it in to some general sexual innuendo. But the hissing sound coming from the tear in his suit renewed and with it went any sense of mirth.

He wondered if Carrick would be fast enough. He wondered if Carrick would encounter the traitor on board the ship, the one they had failed to catch. He wondered if any more spiders were out here (he hoped not). He wondered how his kids were doing.

Let’s back up for a moment. When the players leave the air planet with the crystal prepped to power their ship, they believe they will be able to make it all the way back to Faerun. I already mentioned last post how they leave Star behind and bring Immerstal; I forgot to mention that Knick Knack/Heatstroke also leaves them with a gift: a portion of his power contained in a ring that can summon him briefly to do a few seconds of attacking. Kind of like a Final Fantasy summon of Ifrit, which inspired the idea if I’m being honest. Imoaza also keeps her new pet, the Chi Chu, which keeps trying to say her name, “Chi-mi! Chi-mo!” while ineffectively flitting about.

Aldric uses the ink bought on the planet to finally convince people to take his Green Company seriously and he starts getting some real sign ups. His children, had with the goblin Winestain who he took as mistress on the ship, are growing up too and start spreading the word. Most precocious amongst the eight of them is Sasha, who idolizes her father. Captain Krisp is fond of her as well, enjoying her fervor and zest for life.

Using their downtime, Imoaza decides to follow up with her investigation of who sabotaged their journey before they reached Hell and sent them into Hell space in the first place.

Let’s refresh ourselves briefly on what this mystery was, because it’s been a little bit since we brought it up. Basically, when the players left Toril accidentally on board the Surveyor’s abandoned space ship, they had to go into hyperspace to survive the trip to wherever they were going next. This destination was unknown, but they missed it anyway, due to some kind of malfunction that took the ship off course for an unknown amount of time, knocked them out of hyperspace, and then eventually brought them into Hell Space where they crashed, met Alyss, fought devils, and began the events that led them here.

Recently they learned that this wasn’t just an accident: someone or something on board the ship actively changed their course so they would crash land on Hell.

The good news is, the android Fiona has been able to download footage of the event and piece together a visual of the saboteur. However, before she can show it to them, she screeches in mechanical distress and declares that her memory is being wiped at one of the ship’s motherboard access points. The companions rush to the point, only to find themselves too late: the room is abandoned and while Carrick is able to jump on the motherboard and use his newfound access to his Surveyor memories to stop the deletion, the visuals have been corrupted. All that’s left is a garbled imprint of the sabotage event.

Still this gives them a few clues.

One, they can see that all three of them were asleep in their hyperspace chambers during the event, nixing one of their theories that it might have been Aldric under the command of the sword Black Razor. They can see the figure is human, not a Tiefling or other half human. And of course, they must be technologically savvy enough to erase this footage. By examining the room, they pick up some other clues as well: the smell of sulphur and a scrap of leather on a vent high up on the wall which the perpetrator clearly used to escape. The vent is small, so they know they are dealing with someone lithe and thin enough to make their escape this way.

Suspecting a trick wherein the sabateur may be using a spell of invisibility to try and sneak out of the room while they are distracted, Aldric and the Chi Chu stay behind to guard the entrance to the room while Carrick and Imoaza explore the vents. Here they make their final, and most disturbing, discovery. Deep in the ventilation system is an area that has been turned into a ritualistic shrine, splattered with the blood of sacrificed rats. Imoaza recognizes it as a shrine to Asmodeus, the absent god of the devils who disappeared during the finale of the Blood Wars.

Before anything else can be deduced, the rock is rocked by a sudden explosion and alarms go off all over the ship: the engines have failed.

“Aldric, stay close to Imoaza. Don’t use any energy if you don’t have to. Don’t even talk if you don’t have to.”

Those were Carrick’s last instructions to him before the half-elf sped off towards the ship. Smart advice. The less he moved and spoke, the less he was forcing the suit to process his oxygen, and the less strain he was putting on the suit. That was about the extent of his technical knowledge about the equipment: it was keeping him alive. He needed it to stay that way.

Imoaza gripped his hand through her own suit. It was either eerie floating here in nothingness or peaceful. He couldn’t quite decide. Everything was so damn silent. It was the silence of death. If people saw space, Aldric thought, it would be harder to believe in an afterlife. This is what death was like, he was convinced of it. Just silent and unfeeling and floating. Just nothing.

Odd words to think for a man who had literally been to Hell. But then, Hell wasn’t as much an afterlife as a second life. What were any of them supposed to believe when it turned out that Hell was just another rock in space, just like their own, and god-made machines called Surveyors had created humanity? Too much of Aldric’s world had been shaken in the last few weeks for him to feel like he had anything left to hold onto. He was, literally and figuratively, afloat... adrift.

But he did know one thing: he wanted to find his way back to solid ground. He wanted to live. This was not how he intended to die.

“Carrick won’t take long,” Imoaza promised.

We’re not quite there yet... first, we have to go back and deal with those broken engines. The players are instructed that they will need to go outside the ship to investigate the damage. Thankfully, Fiona remembers that Carrick (or rather the Surveyor) built suits for just this purpose and there happen to be three in working order. She says she’ll get started on repairing the others, but the players don these for now and head out of the airlock, stepping for the first time the full vastness of space. We roll to see who is okay with this. Carrick is fine: his memory as the Surveyor is bracing him for this. Imoaza is actually enthralled: this is the nothing beyond time that her goddess always spoke of, the ultimate end of all things the Yuan Ti strive to bring about. Aldric... is terrified. For a man used to seeing landscapes and horizons, a blank page like this is an existential terror he doesn’t know how to process. But he steps out into space with the rest of them, using a gust spell he learned from the rod of storms to propel himself forward.

Krisp comes in over a static-y radio inside the helmets of their suits, asking them what they see. They report they are in an asteroid field, filled with the debris of other unfortunate ships which have ended up here. Aldric blasts off to a nearby asteroid and lands on it, surveying space for any sign of danger. Carrick goes a ways away to examine the debris, seeing if he can get any clues from it. Imoaza goes to investigate the engines.

What she finds there is odd: it looks like the engines have not exploded at all, but have rather become clogged with strands of thick gooey material. While she is examining this, Aldric sees something crawling along the ship towards her. No; not just one thing, but TWO gigantic eight-legged creatures, big as... big as asteroids.

He’s barely had the thought before the rock he is on shifts and moves and eight legs rise up around him while a mighty max opens at his feet, followed by dozens of eyeballs.

These creatures are asteroid spiders. They first came up in an episode of The Bestiary and are a monster from Spelljammer, where they terrorized space-faring vessels and science fiction aficiandos. Now they’ve joined Alignment May Vary!

The fight against them illustrates how strong the party is. Aldric takes on his spider completely solo, stabbing down into it over and over with his powerful muscles while darting around nimbly and avoiding its attempts to bite or skewer him... well, for the most part. As he kills the thing, it explodes in an acidic mess, which sprays his suit with acid and begins to eat away at it, threatening to expose him to the full vacuum of space. Which, as a guy from a fantasy world, Aldric doesn’t fully understand technically what kind of danger that will expose him to, but Carrick pipes in over the intercom to tell him that it will be very very bad. Deadly bad.

Imoaza takes on a spider that sneaks up on her solo as well, relying on Drosselgreymer’s power and her very strong eldritch blasts. She ends up in a bit of a situation, too, glued to the spider’s own leg with its webbing before she kills it. It similarly explodes and the leg goes spinning off into space with her dizzily attached. Aldric uses gust and the grapple guns they still have from the Mutant Minja Turtles to give chase, leaping heroically from chunks of debris after her.

Carrick is the only one who has trouble with his spider, but this has more to do with position than ability: he’s still floating a ways away from the ship, relying on his much weaker eldritch blast (he’s not a warlock like Imoaza) to snipe at it. But this also puts him in position to see several more of the creatures arriving to swarm the ship and begin to eat away at its hull. He rushes for the ship to take them on one at a time.

And so we get a great scene set: Imoaza spinning through space, struggling to free herself; Aldric giving chase while his suit screams warnings at him and the voices of Carrick and Krisp over the intercom become more and more static-y and eventually silent; and Carrick fighting off massive spiders by himself on the hull of the ship while the spiders lock their talon like legs to the hull and begin pouring acid on it, trying to tear through into the sweet meat inside. Krisp is screaming orders over the intercom, trying to work with Carrick to figure out a solution...

... and then Carrick’s memory sparks and he recalls there is a weapon that can take care of this.

I should note, for this part, I let Carrick’s player steer the design of this weapon. I basically turned to him and said, what’s on this ship that could fight this? And he described a sort of shockwave weapon that could unleash a huge blast of energy and destroy all the spiders. I nodded and told him that such a blast will definitely be deadly to him and the others if they are close to the ship. And so Carrick tells Krisp to do it and pushes himself away using thunderwave to propel himself backwards, while the countdown from 20 begins.

It’s another cool moment: Carrick floating backwards, watching the ship get swarmed, while the countdown dissolves into static. Using his magic to keep his momentum high, he floats into Aldric and Imoaza, who has freed herself by this point, and puts up an energy shield just in time. The blast erupts outward from the ship, blasting the spiders apart and hitting them all like the fist of a god, slamming them further away from the ship and pelting them with debris thrown through space by the blast.

But because of Carrick’s shield, they survive. And that brings us up to the current moment, where Carrick quickly plasters some bandaging material on Aldric’s suit then tells them to wait while he rushes back to the ship to tell them what has happened and bring more help. They know the bandages won’t last long.

Aldric could hear his breathing loud in his helmet, each breath the only breaking of the silence and the only mark of the passing of time. Imoaza was nearby, gripping his arm, the two of them floating in the stillness. Direction was meaningless out here. He wished more than anything to have solid ground underneath him again and to know that it truly was “under” him.

Maybe it was this disorientation that made him tap Imoaza’s helmet gently, signalling he wanted to talk. The radio inside his helmet had died in the shockwave, but they could still hear each other if they placed their helmets against each other. It was the vibrations, their voices carried along the metal of their helmets. She obliged him, and so they pressed the foreheads of their helmets against each other like two conspiring children in the vastness of space.

“Imoaza, if I don’t survive this, then I want you to take care of things back on the ship. I want you to look after this,” he showed her Mistreaver, the blade of the Green Company that took on the elements of those it slew, “and this,” and he tapped his side where the Rod of Storms sat. Imoaza’s slit pupil eyes darted to it.

“My children will need guidance, too,” he continued, “and someone to tell them what we were fighting for...” he trailed off, noticing that Imoaza was still staring at the Rod of the Storms. He paused to get her attention and her eyes met his again. And in that one moment, he realized what a mistake he had made.

Oh fuck. This was the one thought he had time for before Imoaza summoned Dosselgreymer and cut open the side of his suit with it, freeing Mistreaver and the Rod of Storms from him and letting in the void of space. Then she gave him a shove, almost gentle, but enough to push him away. He only lived a moment longer, before cold took him, first filling his lungs, then his mind. The last thing he saw was Imoaza holding his weapons and staring after him silently, without expression, as he drifted into space.

Then his vision became as black as the space around him, and Aldric of the Green Company, once servitor of Eruthynul, later hero of the Battle of Brindol, was no more.

A dire note to end on, but an even more dire one to begin on next time.

#dnd 5e #dungeons and dragons #spelljammer

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zippdementia · 5 years ago

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Part 71 Alignment May Vary: Into the Aether

Having left Hell behind, the players are about to embark on a journey through the planes, though as envisioned by me, the planes are actual planets and their vessel an actual spaceship. My plan is to take them through the four main elemental planes: air, water, fire, and earth, with some space opera adventures in between before we make it back to Toril, Faerun, and the finale of our three year level 2-20 campaign (probably four year by the time we actually finish).

Air is first on the list. For inspiration on each planet, I’m using the Manual of the Planes from 3rd edition and the brief bit about each plane that’s included in the DM’s guide for 5e. For air, I’ve envisioned the planet as a giant vortex of open air and atmosphere, filled with clouds and floating islands, frozen floasting caves made of air particulates, spires that rise from nowhere, and endless voids of currents and maelstroms. Civilization is mostly spread out and disparate, but there is one great conglomeration of cities that orbit the largest city of all, the fortress-city of the Citadel of Ice and Steel.

This citadel is a constructed thing, made of magic steel and ice that is cool to the touch but harder than stone. The Citadel of Ice and Steel consists of level upon level of gardens, courts, and labyrinths. It is a palace without stairs, and visitors who can’t fly get genie guides to escort them through the citadel. Smaller citadels orbit the Citadel of Ice and Steel, each the home of a trusted adviser or powerful lesser caliphs. At the heart of the citadel is said to be a prison cell for the grand caliph’s greatest enemy.

And somewhere on this planet is the Crystal of Air, which the players need in order to power their ship to move onto the next destination, for the crystals of Hell take them only so far as fuel.

This is a really nice break session: we have no combats, few dice rolls, and we get a chance to roleplay for about three hours as the players first move through interactions on board the space ship and then into interactions down on the planet of Air, known as Maseckael (Ma-Sec-kay-ale), where it turns out Star is originally from.

The interactions on the space ship are led by the player interests. We have a nice banter with the restored Fiona, who teases Aldric when he implies he’d like to try sleeping with her:

“You were the stupid one, right, who didn’t know what space was?” “No, I’m pretty sure I was the one you were madly in love with.” “Oh... Carrick! It’s so good to see you again! I didn’t recognize you” *sad facepalm*

Fiona also tells them, when they ask what went wrong with the spaceship in the first place, that her memory banks were erased but that there was a fourth living person on the ship. They don’t know how this is possible or what this means, and Imoaza becomes suspicious that maybe someone among the Hell’s Rebels was on their ship and sabotaged it. She decides to get a listing of all the crew from Captain Krisp. She asks Fiona to keep trying to repair her memory.

Some other fun things happen here. Hilariously, it turns out that Aldric got one of his goblin paramours pregnant and she is going to have quadruplets in a very short time (Goblin gestation period... I tell ya). He gives her possible names for them (Rodrick, Adam, Kyle, Bobbie, Sasha, Baily, Rebecca, Charlotte) and also she becomes his first recruit for his rebuilding of the Green Company, which Aldric is trying to promote. The promotion... doesn’t go the way he hopes. Captain Krisp doesn’t want to be involved in the Company (”too many captains of one ship, you know? And everyone would end up choosing me anyway.”) but he has no problem with Aldric recruiting for it, as long as it isn’t a front for a union. He even helps out with posters: the shirtless Krisp pointing a finger out at the viewer, with big bold letters: GO GREEN. No one really knows what it means, but Aldric’s goblin lady friend starts putting it around that it’s for the Green Company, a band of mercenaries that she and her children are going to give their lives for. Also, to be initiated, you have to have sex with Aldric (not true, but she misunderstands the circumstances). We all have a good laugh over this, but I really do intend it as well to be a solid downtime activity for Aldric, as his actions and rolls will determine over the course of this adventure whether his efforts to rebuild the company are successful or not.

We also try (and fail) to come up with a good name for the Surveyor’s ship. Imoaza favors The Dominion, but it seems a little domineering for the others (something Imoaza is like, “yeah, and your point is?” about). Carrick reaches inside his memories and says it was once named the Monument, but that doesn’t stick either. Puck finds the whole thing hilarious and suggests “Broken Dreams” as the name of the ship, which everyone ignores.

During this conversation, Imoaza asks Krisp if he ever met a woman named Karina in her travels, recalling that the tortured Bronze Dragon they met in the Yuant Ti temple had desired to give her a message. Krisp gets a distant look in his eyes and says it does ring a bell, but the details of his past life are hazy now, leaving him only with his old desires, not the reasons for them. He suddenly recalls the name of his old ship, the Mankey Bastard, but can’t remember how he died (”Probably saving this Karina from hordes of enemies! I leap into combat, two rapiers in my hands and a dagger in my teeth, thrusting and stabbing dozens of enemies apart before they finally bring me down, my last view of Karina making it safely to the longboat!”) He briefly suggests naming the ship the Swanky Bastard, but then determines it should really be the companions naming it as they, after all, are the reason everyone is making it off of Hell.

The rod of storms comes up when Aldric asks Otto the Warlock about it. Otto examines it and realizes it is tied now to Aldric’s lifeforce, wrapped around his soul in a way it’s not supposed to be, the result of Aldric forcing the weapon to work for him in the Demon’s Belly. Otto offers to help teach him to use it, or to help him break free of it, but he says breaking free does carry a risk of ripping Aldric’s soul asunder (he uses a minor illusion spell to illustrate hooks ripping the flesh off of Aldric’s body as a visual aid).

Carrick also has an interesting an unexpected encounter, after rolling a perfect 100 on a percentile die while looking for fellow paladins: he runs into Ramon, the young Paladin he killed during his evil days.

Time out: I’m actually not sure how much I’ve talked about Carrick’s past on these blogs? Carrick once was a corrupted Paladin who sought power for power’s sake and began to dominate and destroy villages and towns. One day, a young paladin (Ramon) hunted him down, believing as youth sometimes do, that they are destined for great things and are indestructible besides. Ramon found out the hard way that he could not kill Carrick when Carrick used his powerful dark spear to impale him and murder him. Yet in a way, Ramon did win the fight: After murdering the youth, Carrick was struck with sorrow and regret and this prompted him to put away his spear for good (though he still carries it) and to turn to a path of redemption. His meeting with Ramon now is a powerful character moment, as the two share a drink and Ramon absolves Carrick of his guilt, telling him that he was shocked he, Ramon the brave, ended up in Hell after his deeds and it made him question whether he had truly followed the will of the god of light in pursuing Carrick’s death. “Maybe the reason the god is shown with his sword always sheathed is not because we are meant to be that sword,” he ponders, “but because the god does not believe in drawing it. Perhaps true justice is not found in the blade, but in the heart.”

He tells Carrick he hopes they can fight alongside each other now, instead of against each other and ends by telling him that he recognizes that Carrick ultimately chose mercy even when fighting him, dealing him a blow that killed quickly, instead of slowly and painfully. That’s too much for Carrick: he breaks down into sobs, a conflicting wave of emotions pouring through him. Of regret for the man he was; of sorrow for the boy he killed; of relief at finding him again; grateful for the men they have both become.

As a break from all this sadness, one other ridiculous thing happens. Fiona bakes cookies and the group discovers an unknown flaw of Imoaza’s: she has a MASSIVE sugar addiction. Like, she gets high from sugar. We roll for all of this, which is part of the reason it is so unexpected and hilarious. Aldric eats cookies with her, though a little cautiously when he sees the way she attacks them (her favorite turn out to be these chocolate shortbread cookies with white chocolate swirls and candy baked into them). We also roll to see how many cookies she snags before she leaves the ship for the planet of air: it turns out to be around two dozen. I decree that each cookie heals her a hitpoint. But only for Imoaza.

Several people decide to accompany the players down to the Air Planet: Alyss goes, as does Star (who knows this world). Puck flits along as well, riding on Carrick’s shoulder. Jacobs (recovered from his mental injuries in the City of Ghosts) flies them down to the Citadel of Ice and Steel and they land in an atmosphere of unease and prophecy: a great storm is said to be building, greater than anything the planet has ever seen. Indeed, dark clouds have been forming around the companions ever since their arrival and they begin to suspect it has something to do with the Rod of Storms.

Star is very nervous being back home. When asked why, she tells them she belonged to a crime syndicate here, the Whispering Way. If anyone can help them locate the air crystal, it would be them, but Star isn’t sure how happy they would be to see her. After all, she tells them, it was the syndicate which murdered her the first time around. When Carrick asks her what kind of crime the syndicate specializes in, Star tells him “accidents.” She explains that killing is not allowed in the Citadel of Ice and Steel on pain of death (or worse) so accidental deaths, or at least deaths that LOOK like accidents, become a bit of a commodity and a source of power and wealth for those who have the skill to arrange such things.

While wandering one of the Citadel’s many bazaars, they are greeted by a familiar face: Immerstal the Red, who says he appeared here after spending an indeterminate amount of time in his pocket dimension brothel after the Battle of Brindol and he and Aldric’s last rambunctious night together. He had to destroy the dimension in order to escape and has rebuilt a brothel here in the Citadel instead. He is extremely pleased to see Carrick and Aldric, both of whom he knew from Brindol, but has no idea how much time has passed since he left Faerun behind (albeit, accidentally). His manner changes when he sees the Rod of Storms: “Why would you bring that here? Here of all places, its power is going to be immense!”

But before the players can respond, they are approached by less friendly individuals: a group of pale blue Genasi, genie born half breeds, approach and demand they come with them. Star tells the companions that they shouldn’t fight, reminding them that killing is not allowed in the Citadel of Steel and Ice.

Alyss says she’ll wait at the brothel with Immerstal, and so the others accompany the Genasi to their leader, Lakosa, the head of the Whispering Wind crime syndicate.

Lakosa is a Genasi as well: her ears are pierced in multiple places and she has eyes of pure blue and shards of crystal growing from her bald head. The players are brought to a grand structure surrounded by beautiful pools and gardens, wherein Lakosa resides. Her fortress is draped with greenery: vines and ivy cover most of the surfaces and trees sprout at odd, but obviously deliberate, angles from the fortresses’ spires and battlements.

Inside, much is made of silver, crystal, and glass. Lakosa herself greets the companions from an ornate couch, where she lounges, her sleek blue body blending in with the azure cushions. Carrick looks around appreciatively. Imoaza is, as usual, unimpressed. Aldric smiles brightly at Lakosa, liking what he sees. Puck yawns. Star is extremely uncomfortable.

“You look great, for two hundred,” she tells Lakosa.

“Oh girl,” Lakosa purrs. “You’ve been dead longer than that. I’m nearly two hundred and fifty now.”

“And yet you still remember.”

“When you’re my age, time goes a lot faster. Doesn’t seem that long since you were last here. Definitely not long enough to forget.” “

Long enough to forgive?” “

Maybe. Depends.”

Aldric actually takes the lead here, rolling well on charisma for his interactions with Lakosa (despite the dampening influence of the Rod of Storms) and winning from her favorable words and flirtations. She remains calm and in control of the situation throughout the conversation, asking what the players need and considering their answer when they tell her of their quest for the crystal. While they talk, she drifts about her chamber, graceful and smooth in her movements as if she floats upon a cloud. She drinks from a pale yellow bottle a liquid the color of sunset and eats strange berries from a crystal bowl. When Aldric tries one, he finds it to taste oddly of milk and to make his lips tingle.

Here, too, we get Star’s back story. She was a famed air racer and ace flyer who dreamed of escaping off world with her lover, Feserania, in her own spaceship. One hundred years ago, she accepted a bribe to throw a race, costing the Whispering Wind and Lakosa (who sponsored her) a ton of money. She was going to use the bribe to buy a ship and get off world with Feserania, but before she could, she was caught by the Genasi and her ship was given bad coordinates: directed into a maelstrom. She managed to eject Feserania before they hit the storm. The last thing she saw was Feserania screaming and reaching for her before the maelstrom ripped her ship and Star apart.

She asks Lakosa what happened to Feserania. “Dead,” Lakosa tells her. “The fey born live a long time, girl. But not as long as that. Not when they have a broken heart.”

Lakosa tells Star that it turns out Star has returned at a fortuitous time. There is a race coming up and Lakosa needs a ringer. The champion of the races is named Heatstroke (“a gauche name,” Lakosa says. “That’s funny,” Carrick answers, “Coming from a group that calls themselves the whispering wind”). He’s unbeatable and probably under some kind of service to the Cloud Giant who runs the race. Whether a slave or a well paid racer, he has dominated the races and is making it hard for anyone else to make money off the races.

“Win this race for me, and I’ll give you a cut of the earnings and help you with whatever you need.”

Star muses, “if I’m going to race, I’m going to need a bird.” The races, back in Star’s day, were always held on large bird-like creatures called Aether Craws, great big feathered birds shaped a little like long horses, with huge necks and four mighty talons. Lakos tells her, though, that the rules have changed: now people can enter on machines or using magic. But she believes there is still no match for a well ridden Aether Craw. Technology is known to glitch out in the environments the racers pass through and the Aether Craw are fast, maneuverable, and vicious... all good qualities to have in the race.

“But my old Craw, Lone Star, has to be long dead,” Star says. “Where am I going to get a bird and train it so quickly?”

“He is dead. But his brood is alive. They roost on the Vortexian Spires, above where the endless waterfalls form from the mists. You’ll have to claim one from the nest in a show of strength. It’s the only way it will respect you enough to let you fly.”

The group knows now what they must do. They depart the Palace of Mists, Lakosa’s fortress, and plan their next move. Star muses, telling the group that Feserania had her own bird that she was raising from an egg. “It had a withered wing, which meant any sensible breeder would have killed it. A mercy, really. It could never compete. But for Feserania, well, that was the very thing that made her pick it! She was raising it to care for it, not to use it. She believed it could still live on its own in the wild someday. I think she thought the same of me.” Star reminisces silently for a moment. After Star died, she kept praying she would see Feserania in hell. “I guess, though, that’s why I was there. Anyone who would hope their lover would go to hell just so they could see them again. It’s a selfish thing. I’m glad she’s somewhere better.”

Carrick tries to comfort her, but cannot find the words. Star smiles sadly and the subject is dropped.

That’s as far as we get this session! Next time, we go to the Vortexian Spires to try and tame an Aether Craw and then we’ll have ourselves a sky race.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #Alignment may vary #Campaign Journal #Plane of Air

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