#you west enders have it so easy over there

[broadwaydivastournament]

Now, I have no plans to go all the way to London for this, but I was in the queue just to see how it was this morning, and it was one of the worst I've ever seen.

"For a limited five-week season, the show’s original Broadway leads – André de Shields (Hermes), Eva Noblezada (Eurydice), Reeve Carney (Orpheus), Amber Gray (Persephone) and Patrick Page (Hades) – will return to the production...Further casting is to be revealed."

With Eureka Day extending, this leaves Amber Gray with a very narrow window between shows, and as this West End Hadestown stint cuts into the planned Eureka Day transfer to the Kennedy Center in March, it is unlikely she will stay with the latter production.

[vinummagicae]

Since arriving at Camp Godspeed, things have been harrowing for the Son of Dionysus in some way, shape, or form. Not to say that life before becoming a demigod was any less so, but the trials and tribulations that this newfound life can bring seems almost more extreme than anything else. But maybe it felt similar to his life before all of this. Maybe, this new life, was better or worse. That is for Ender to decide. While there might be less darkness and more light. It can also seem the opposite—more darkness, less light. 

With the exception of the Trial of Deimos. After what felt like far too long in a nightmarish dimension, testing himself and his allies, Ender is back with the rest of the demigods at Camp Godspeed. Perhaps he considers this his home now, if one could call it that. Sleep doesn't come easy like it sometimes would. There is too much on his mind. Fresh scars and emotional wounds from what they'd endured in the Trial of Deimos. Eventually, though, he finds himself drifting to sleep. 

He doesn't know how long he's been asleep, but when he wakes up, he's not where he remembers he fell asleep. Was he sleep walking? Was this a dream? He opens his eyes and he sees something, a familiar landscape. 

Please describe where Ender is. Be as descriptive as you would like.

It was the sun on his face that first caught his attention. His eyes were still shut from sleep but he didn’t have to open them to notice that he wasn’t in his bed back at camp anymore. When he had fallen asleep he was cold, a bit chilly even with the body pressed up against him clinging to him in deep sleep. So the feeling of the warm sun on his skin was enough to shock him out of the dream he was having and into opening his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the brightness. Normally one to fall asleep in a pitch black room, he had to blink away the light that was piercing his eyes and penetrating his head. No, none of that. A groan escaped him and he sat up using his hands as a leverage when he noticed the second thing; he was no longer on his bed but instead had been lying on the dry earth. 

Fingers dug into the soil as he looked around seeing nothing but tendrils of vines along trellis as far as his eyes could see. A small chuckle escaped him as he fully stood up, stretching his bones as he did so, letting his eyes now look around him taking it all in. Rows and rows of grapes like an endless sea stretched out in front of him; Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, even Merlot. They were all there waiting to greet him like old friends that had been waiting for the college graduate to return after a semester abroad. The smile on his face was blinding, ignoring every bad memory that threatened to rush up from inside him at the sight of the familiar landscape. For now there was only one thing on his mind-- 

He was home.  

The endless rows of different grapes stand before Ender like beacons welcoming him home. They smell hits him next, rich and plentiful. Everything seems familiar to him. It's a beautiful sight to behold and a sense of ease begins to creep between his shoulders blades, tension that he didn't know was there beginning to dissipate. 

He begins to walk forward and the rows of grapes seem to have changed. Instead of straight lines, they break off into different directions. One continues forward, the others go off to the East and West. Different grapes line each trail before him. The decision on which way is all up to Ender.

Fingers outstretched he looks around at the vineyard as he slowly walks away from the house it was attached to and deeper into the trellis of grapes. How many times had his brother and him ran through these exact rows laughing as their younger sister chased after them, demanding that they bring her along too? Then later in life there was the time he brought Greyson here, as a way to steal a moment after introducing him to the family that drove Ender insane whenever he visited. Of course there were the other memories too, ones that he didn’t focus on in that moment because the sun was beaming down on his face and he was happy. 

Well at least until he came to the fork in the grapes, one he didn’t remember from being there before. Perhaps, mom just replanted some of them, Ender thought to himself not letting himself get to worked up in the change of scenery and found himself heading East more out of curiosity than anything. 

As memories begin to flood him, Ender's feet take him East. The rows and rows of grapes that are yellowish in color and go as deep as a light green color. He knows that these are typically used for white wines, which isn't the usual that he enjoys. 

But the scenery does begin to change. The further he goes, the more narrow the rows begin to get. Then the rows of grapes begin to cluster together, the vines are thick, barbed, and they start to encircle him, blocking off the path he came.

The sight of the white wine grapes only added to the elated mood he was feeling. It brought back a sense of familiarity at the memory of how his mother tended to prefer a glass of chardonnay with dinner, it being the first wine she ever sold. It was also the first sip of wine he had at the young age of seven, sealing his fate of his addiction in that moment. Though that was in the past, not things he wanted to dwell on as he reached the rows of grapes that slowly began to encircle him, cutting his way off from where he came. Perhaps a bit too late, Ender realized that he was no longer on his mother’s property anymore, no longer in the vineyard where he grew up chasing his brother in games they had played. He was trapped. 

The vines begin to creep in slowly, the grapes popping to reveal sharp barbed like thorns. They start to circle around his feet, getting ready to sweep him off his feet.

“Shit,” is the first thing he says when he sees the thorns appear from the grapes. He attempts to jump back away from them out of instinct like a child would if they came across a snake in the wild. However Ender soon realized that he couldn’t escape from them, trying his best to stay on his feet as he hopped from one foot to the other as they reached out at him. Looking around he searched for a way out of this, wishing that he hadn’t let his curiosity get the best of him and followed the unknown path. The drunken demigod was now desperate to get back into the warmth of the sun and familiarity he had felt moments before. 

In a panic, Ender looks for a way out. He spots a way through the vines, he just only has to jump through it and get to the other side.

As soon as he sees it, Ender jumps. Legs bending at his knees, he gathers momentum before he launches his lanky self into the air and through the vines in what he hopes looks like one of those cool action moves that all the heroes do in the movies. Landing he takes a second to steady himself before looking back at the vines he had escaped and this time instead of walking away from the thrones, he runs. Runs like he has done all his life when he ran from the troubles in LA or the thought of marriage in London. Ender may not be athletic like the others at camp but he was good from running away from his problems and his past and this was no different. Keeping his eyes ahead he focused on his breathing, relishing the pain in his lungs as they searched for oxygen and kept running until he felt like he was no longer in California where he grew up. When he stopped his fleeing he was standing in the middle of a very busy road with skyscrapers all around him reaching up towards the heavens. 

Ender runs and he runs hard. Everything he's ran from his entire life is like the vines chasing him, the thorns reaching out to grab him. The rows and rows of grapevines begin to wither away and give way to skyscrapers that erect toward the sky above. 

Cars whiz past him, honking their horns as he stops in the middle of a road, panting for oxygen that burns his lungs as if he's not going to get enough air to keep him from falling over.

There are tears in his eyes and he isn’t sure if that’s from the lack of oxygen in his lungs or the realization of where he ran to. Just like when he was younger, a boy fresh out of high school with only a dream to his name, he found himself in the city of Angels. “Fuck.” He hissed out looking around only moving to side step over when a car whizzed by him. It was all familiar in the best and worst ways possible. Almost a decade ago he had ran to this city looking for gigs that he could make his name with, break away from the shadow his step-father casted over him. It was clear that if he was to make it into Broadway every role he took would only be an excuse to compare himself to the living theater legend that was Roger McKenzie. He had revitalized and brought Shakespeare into the modern age as well as opened some of the most well known shows as a lead in the Winter Garden Theatre as well as others. No, if Ender wanted to be known for his work and not as ‘Roger McKenzie’s son’ then he had to try to make his chance here. 

So he did. 

Walking when he felt like he could breathe again, his steps were slow and his mind lost in thoughts before out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse in the reflection of himself in the store window. Pausing he turned to notice that no longer was his curls long enough to pin behind his head to keep them out of his face but instead it was trimmed shorter and styled perfectly almost on the top of his head with a single curl in his forehead. “Fuck,” even his voice was a bit higher as he glanced around and the rest of the signs falling into place; a billboard for the last Harry Potter movie was staring at him across the street, Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ blasting from a car stereo as it drove past him. 

Not only did he somehow manage to run to LA but he had also managed to run back ten years in the past when he was just a 21 year old boy whose life was about to be shaken. 

The time wind to the past sends Ender for a loop. This was a time of promise, when he could make a name for himself, forge himself into the person that he always dreamed of becoming. He looks down at his hands, but he notices that he hasn't actually de-aged himself. It's just his reflection in the mirror, that piece of him that was still alive and bustling with energy. 

He stares and he stares and then, finally, the reflection says something to him. 

"What went wrong?"

Is it his voice that he hears? What does this voice sound like?

To someone who would barely knows Ender they would have easily assumed that the voice was his; it was the same pitch, the same accent but the delivery of it was what was different. While Ender would have asked this with remorse and regret perhaps laced with a bit of disgust, this image of him was asking in a way that was kind and caring. It felt like an arrow struck him in the heart at the sound, realizing he had gone almost a year now since he heard the other speak. “Leo,” Ender said softly to the reflection almost with disbelief at the sight of his twin staring there at him. Of course he thought it was himself at first glance, they both had worn their hair similar at that age. “You know what went wrong...you’re the one who came to pick me up when I called you crying.” It had been 3 am but yet Leo still came when his world and dreams came crashing around him ten years ago. The start of his descent to rock bottom. “You wanted to slash his tires or at least let you leak it to the press but--” Ender wouldn’t let him, knowing that it would have done more damage to his name than good. “Why am I back here?”

The spit image of Ender looks at himself and doesn't move, doesn't flinch. "WAS THIS THE START OF IT ALL? YOUR RUINATION?" The voice asks. The same colored eyes look Ender up and down. "MAYBE YOU'RE HERE TO REMEMBER. MAYBE YOU'RE HERE TO REMIND YOURSELF HOW FAR YOU HAVE GONE. WHY ARE YOU HERE?" The voice asks back, curious of the answer that Ender might give.

“I don’t know,” he hissed out at the version of Leo in the reflection. It was eerie to see him this young again after so many months of not talking. Ender knew that it was mostly in his head, just a projection of his twin but still-- “I didn’t have a start to my so-called ‘runation’. My life was always headed down this path, I just never stopped it. You said it yourself.” Their last conversation pushed his way through to his mind but he just like every other time it threatened to make itself known. He locked it in a box and threw away the key. “I never wanted to come back here and you knew that.” A final glare and he continued to walk as if that could escape the reflection and the painful memories it brought with it. 

When Ender leaves the glass sides of the buildings, the reflection falls away. Instead, the shadow that follows him has the voice now. "AND YET, YOU CAME BACK." The voice sounds like it's whispering in the back of his ear, in the shell of it. 

"WHY? WHAT MAKES THIS PLACE SPECIAL?" Just like the real life version of his brother, this one wouldn’t leave him alone it seemed. It was almost comical the familiar feeling of Leo chasing after him trying to get Ender to talk about whatever was bothering him that day. All they were missing was a small blonde girl following Leo wanting to be included in what her brothers did. “I didn’t plan to come here. I was cornered so I ran and when I stopped running I was here.” At that last word he spun in a small circle with his arms outstretched to show where exactly ‘here’ was. “This place was never special to me-- it was just a place that chewed me up and spit me back out like everyone else that believed the first too good to be true lie that came their desperate way.” 

"DO YOU WANT THIS PLACE TO ALWAYS BE THAT FOR YOU? OR DO YOU WILL IT TO CHANGE?" The shadow ebbs and flows from beneath Ender with each step. 

The Los Angeles scenery continues to speed around him as he walks along the sidewalks. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU WANT THIS PLACE TO BE."

SHOW ME WHAT YOU WANT THIS PLACE TO BE. 

Normally not one for taking commands that wasn’t in a sexual manner, Ender would have bitten back and yelled at the shadow version of his brother. Always one to defy what was told of him wanting to show people that they were wrong about the image of him they saw, even if they happened to see more of the truth than Ender wanted to let on. Yet when he heard those nine words hissed out to him, he didn’t start cursing and caused a scene for everyone around in this reverie to see. Instead he paused and looked around and this time he really looked. The sights were painful, filled with memories that he was still trying to push aside forever but he kept hearing those words over and over in his mind. Show me what you want this place to be. 

Ender took a few more steps before turning to head to the middle of the street weaving between the cars as he moved. When he got where he could see things around him, he inhaled and stared at the nearest building to him. It was a simple record shop hidden among tourist traps and if you weren’t looking for it, it was easy to pass as you walked by. Thankfully he had stopped there enough times to know where it was but that wasn’t what caught his eye today. 

There was a movie poster hanging from the window as the shop sold DVD’s on the side to bring in a bit more clientele off the streets. This movie poster had faded in the sun but it was clear as a bell for what recent film it was promoting. It would eventually go on to win Oscars in many categories but that wasn’t what made Ender stare at it no. Right in the middle of it was a classically handsome man with blonde hair and a smolder that was meant to attract the ladies into seeing even if there was nearly no chemistry between him and the lead and plot holes that made swiss cheese look solid. 

It was him and all Ender had to do was turn his head to see that not only was this man’s face on the poster in front of him but on billboards promoting the same movie and others of his around the city.

“I want this place to be _mine_. I want to take what he took from me.” His voice shook with anger causing the buildings of the memory to shake alongside his words. “THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO KNOW MY NAME, NOT HIS!” 

"YOU HAVE THE POWER." He hears the voice in the back of his head again, a whisper that encourages Ender to believe it. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU'LL DO TO MAKE THEM KNOW YOUR NAME."

The buildings around him shook as the anger only fueled him on. Anger that was hiding the fact that he was hurt still. Ten years and he still was broken over what had happened in this city. “I trusted you,” he called out to the man in the picture slowly watching as the blond shifted into an image of Ender instead, as if he had been the lead in the movie all along. “I trusted you and you used me!” His voice cracked some and a few tears fell down his cheek as the floodgates of pain and memories he had spent so long trying to keep hidden came flooding out. “You told me you could make me a star,” with an elegance that could only come from being who he was, he hopped up onto the hood of a car only to step up so he was standing on top of it now. “You told me that you would make them know my name!” He continued to cry out, letting his pain flow through his words as he shouted at the nearest billboard, one promoting another one of the blonde’s movies. “Yet you _lied_, said I came onto you and got me blacklisted on every fucking directors list in this fucking city!” 

Just like the poster the photo on the billboard shifted and turned into one carrying his face and name as the ten years of pain slowly began to pour out of him. “I LOVED YOU AND YOU BROKE ME!” Buildings were still shaking, threatening to buckle just seconds before the glass shattered and liquid poured out of them filling the streets. Amber, clear, colored and deep red filled the streets as the liquor flooded out of the establishments alongside the street turning the section of LA they were in, into Venice. Panting as he watched the booze run down the streets, splashing the feet of the people who were now staring up at him as if he was some kind of idol, Ender paused his ranting. Just standing there, his anger shifting into silence as he stared at the street below him the faces peering up at him now. 

Yet it still wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until-- 

His champagne eyes landed on the figure in the middle of the running liquid that seemed to have materialized from his anger. It was as if whatever this was, whatever dreamlike state of reverie he was in knew that this was what he wanted all along. 

“Carter.” 

As the anger that wrestles inside of Ender begins to grow like a tide, the running liquid begins to form a shape that he has long since yearned for. Venice unfurls around him, the streets reforming, reshaping as if Ender has willed it. 

Carter stands there, made of liquid as deep and red as the wine that Ender drinks. It doesn't move, it doesn't do anything but stay there, swaying like the liquid that pours into the streets.

For a second time stops as he stares at the version of the man who had betrayed him so deeply that it lingered for this long. Carter is made out of wine but Ender doesn’t care, perhaps it’s a bit better that he can’t physically wrap his hand around the man’s real neck and squeeze the life out of it. Instead he controls the wine that isn’t making up the figure and turns them into tendrils as he hops down from the car. Each step he takes in the river of booze, he parts like he was Moses in the Red Sea not wanting to get his shoes wet as he crossed the distance between them. When he is in front of the figure he stares it down treating it as if it really was the actor in front of him. “Remember the photos you took? How you said they would be better than headshots when it came to getting directors attention?” Images of him lying on a bed, naked, filled his mind as a tendril of wine wrapped itself around the figure’s wrist. Compromising positions that were guaranteed to make him noticed, he was promised. 

“Or how about the way you encouraged me to get on my knees for one when he wasn’t sure if I was the right fit for a part?” A simple suggestion that had worked because even in Hollywood all it took was a blowjob to get what you wanted. Another tendril found its way around the figure’s other wrist pinning him in place now. “I still stay up at night wondering if that part was worth the backlash it got me. How it got exposed that I was sleeping with directors for parts because, according to the tabloids, I wasn’t talented to get it any other way. Now I wonder who leaked it? Oh wait, it was _you_.” It had been one blowjob, one suggestion to him while high on coke and everything crumbled around him; his world, his future, his name. 

A final tendril of wine snaked up Carter’s body and wrapped itself slowly around his neck like a snake constricting its prey but before it could squeeze too tightly, Ender paused. His champagne hazel eyes were now turned deep red as he stared at the figure, anger still flowing through him but instead of yelling all he could camly say was, “honestly, I forgave you years ago for all of that. You were manipulated and just as naive as I was. Fuck, you weren’t even out of the closet so why should I have expected you to stay beside me the whole time holding me hand?” A dry chuckle escaped him and he shook his head. “No, you want to know what I can’t forgive you for?”

Leaning closer, his lips were at the figure’s ears as if he was about to tell him a secret he then confessed, “because of you I spiraled into a deep addiction that nearly--no did kill me. If it hadn’t been for you--if you hadn’t pressured me with false promises and lies, well--” Then he wouldn’t have ended up on the bathroom floor in his step father’s penthouse to be found by Leo with heart attack, three brain aneurysms, only able to walk away alive because of the blood that ran through his veins. “I was younger than you, you took advantage of me in my vulnerable moments and left me with an addiction and trauma that I will never be able to shake off. And all because you saw a young boy fresh out of high school with dreams that would believe anything that you said,” he wasn’t sure when the tears filled his eyes until one fell down his cheek a mixture of anger that was still boiling deep inside him but also the pain he felt. “I TRUSTED YOU!” 

Letting out a blood curdling scream of anger and pain, the tendril wrapped around the figure of wine’s neck tightened. Tighter and tighter until it popped like a water balloon exploding splashing and covering him with wine that had made up the image of Carter seconds before. Covered in wine that resembled blood Ender sobbed before falling to his knees letting everything that he had been holding in for years out. All the pain, betrayal, all of it. 

He didn’t want to run from it anymore. 

Ender unloads years worth of pent up frustration and again. Everything that he has bottled up, every ounce of pain that has embedded itself into himself unleashes in a torret of blood-red wine. The creature's head explodes as the tendrils of wine wrap around it like lithe fingers, choking the life from it until there's nothing but a puddle left where Carter once stood. 

Ender stands there panting, chest feeling heavy but then it feels light. 

The scene around him calms down and out of the surface of the water, another figure begins to form. 

What does Ender see? Is it a person or a thing? Describe what this figure looks like in as much detail as you would like.

Silence. For a second there is only silence. It was Ender’s pet peeve, the sound of nothing and usually tried to fill the void with music or speaking. One of the many reasons he enjoyed the stage and the life it created through it’s art. Yet in that moment he relished the silence, accepted it and just focused on the nothingness as he came down from his sobbing spell. When he finally felt like he could breathe again, he noticed the figure in front of him, one that wasn’t made of wine like Carter had been moments before. 

Glancing up, he stared at the face that was similar to his own but it was no mirror this time, no reflection or mind tricks of Liza in New York. “Now what, Leo?” He huffed out softly, running a finger through his own curls. Ender was still on his knees in the middle of the street from when he collapsed with the pain from years gone by he had bottled up, so looking up at the figure of his twin was a bit straining on his neck. “Is this some sort of test? Do you want me to go back to New York now and relive our last conversation? What do you want from me?” 

As Leo stands before him, identical to Ender in almost every way, he reaches a hand out toward him, motioning behind him. "No, not New York. You have a new home now." The voice is still the same as before, identical to his own, but higher pitched, younger. He reaches down and places a hand on Ender's shoulder before he helps him to his feet. 

"You have been through so many things, Ender. You know who you are and you know what you can overcome. Continue your fight, continue forward." There is a tentative smile on Leo's face before he turns Ender around to look at Los Angeles' streets. They roll into the same vineyard he grew up in, somehow connected. 

"Make a name for yourself."

He pushes Ender forward, as if telling him to go and as Ender is forced to take a step, he jolts awake. He's back where he fell asleep—back in Camp Godspeed, in familiar sheets, in a warmth that encompasses his entire body. Tears have stained his cheeks, as if he was crying in his sleep. But his chest feels lighter than it has in a long time. There's a lightness to it. He feels his own blood surging in his veins and it feels...stronger, like a connection has been formed, something inside of him unlocked. 

He feels new, reforged, ready to, perhaps, take the world by storm. 

He falls back asleep after a while, trying to wrap his head around what just happened. It doesn't make sense and yet, he feels perfect clarity. When he finally falls back asleep, it's a dreamless sleep that feels the most refreshing he's had since before he can remember. He wakes the next morning and he feels powerful. It's a strange feeling coming from a place of powerlessness, but maybe now, in this new life he's been given, he's ready to embrace the power that he's always had inside of him.. 

[triple-a-enderdragon]

What is this, wicked witch of the west? Hope not.

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Impulse stared at the world data as the Nether disconnected from the overworld, two hermits still trapped inside. He tried sending them a message, but it failed to go through. Now Impulse was confused more than anything; both Iskall and Python showed on the world population list, he should be able to send a message to them. One could even send messages to people in other worlds; it just took awhile.

But never had he seen it just...fail.

He vaguely heard rockets overhead as someone deftly slid into the room. False grabbed his shoulder to steady herself, narrowly avoiding a collision.

"Impulse? What's going on?" she asked, watching the data shift.

Impulse took one last look at the world data, wanting desperately to not voice his dread. But he could not avoid reality.

"The Nether's closed off."

Their eyes met; her disbelief, his exhaustion.

"Are they still in there?"

"I wish I could say no, but..." Impulse gestured helplessly.

And for the first time in years, False was speechless.

~~~

Back in the Nether, Iskall was becoming more and more limp. Python, unable to support the full weight of the man, gently rested him against the wall. His friend's breathing was already alarmingly shallow; Python didn't know what to do.

It seemed Iskall did, as he placed down an ender chest and started to weakly go through it. He managed to pull out a light blue shulker box, but that was as far as he got before he collapsed completely. Python, upon opening it, discovered it was an emergency kit; filled with golden carrots, rockets, spare elytra, and blocks of packed ice. Seeing the packed ice, Python knew what Iskall was trying to do.

Pulling out a stack of the ice, he went to work surrounding them both in a cube before giving Iskall a block to hold. Almost immediately the temperature within the box started cooling, but Python was afraid he was too late; the Swede had already fallen unconscious.

It was then he noticed the ice beginning to melt.

~~~

How quaint. They think a little ice will stop me?

The column of fire stood at the edge of the ruined tunnel watching the two figures; one frantic, the other unmoving. Xisuma could only watch on in horror.

One is close, the other not far behind. Soon they shall join you.

X was unable to move, every fiber of his being screamed to do something, if only to just get away. But he could do nothing to stop the Nether from burning his friends alive. Even worse, they were there because of him.

Aw hell, where's the fun in that? They'll never leave, anyway.

A new wave of dread swept over X as he watched the pigmen converge on the icy shelter that kept two desperate hermits alive.

~~~

Tango was agitated. More than that, he was furious, enraged. He never agreed to this; the initial pact or this current "test". Or any of it, really. Two of his friends were dead with two more not far behind, and this pillar of bastard was to blame. Raging around his base, he didn't notice all the fires he was inadvertently setting for quite a while. When he did, he forced himself to calm down. Anger would do no good without a direction, a purpose.

Interestingly enough, Tango felt he could do something about it, he just needed some help; yet from who, he didn't quite know.

So he directed that anger towards this problem, who could help him. Many of the hermits were magical, but most didn't have what he was looking for. What was he looking for? Something Grian had said earlier had stuck with him: So this is what she meant? What did he mean by that? Tango was so preoccupied he didn't hear someone gliding into his base.

"Tango, you ok my dude? I saw smoke and was afraid it was getting a bit toasty in here."

Tango snapped out of his thoughts to find Ren looking concerned.

"Oh! No, it's nothing to worry about. Heat never bothered me, but..." He looked at the scorch marks in the grass. "I may have gotten a bit heated."

"A bit heated? This looks more than a bit. Anyway, just making sure everything's ok over here. If you need me, give a holler." As Ren turned to leave, Tango stopped him.

"Wait. I'm going to see Impulse, I think I know what I need to do." As Ren turned back, Tango asked, "You want to come with? The more heads the better."

~~~

To say Python was worried was an understatement. It took him almost an hour to calm himself down; when he did, he noticed two things. One, Iskall's breathing had deepened and he was no longer deathly pale. Second, the slowly thinning walls of ice had refrozen not long ago; the Nether's temperature had dropped. Even though they were still stuck in the Nether, Python could start to feel hope. As long as the two of them survived, their friends would find a way to get them out.

Now that Iskall's condition seemed to have stabilized, Python wanted to scout out a more permanent place to wait things out. However, as soon as he broke one of the ice blocks, a golden sword came whizzing inches past his face. Slamming the block back in place, Python had to take a minute to calm down. So there was a small horde of pigmen waiting for them just outside. But what was confusing was the fact that neither Iskall nor Python had provoked them in any way. At least, none that he could think of.

A small groan and the sound of movement behind him caused Python to turn around. When he saw Iskall struggling to sit up, he almost burst into tears of relief.

"Python? What happened? I remember the portal was out and—" Iskall was interrupted as Python tackled him in an iron grip of a hug. A squeak escaped him as the hug threatened to make him pass out again. Python heard it and quickly lessened the pressure, though he didn't let go for a few more seconds.

"Missed me, did you?"

"You have no idea, man! I was worried you were going to die! You can't do that again!"

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just...the Nether and I never really got along very well." Iskall absentmindedly picked up the ice block he had held when he was unconscious. "If I stay in the Nether too long, I start to overheat; thus the packed ice."

"Well, you think you're ready for a fight?" Python asked as he stood up.

"A fight? Why?"

"Remember all those pigmen we saw earlier?" Iskall nodded. "Well, they're after us for whatever reason."

As Iskall got up, he had to grab Python to steady himself. "Why would they be after us?"

"I don't know. Are you sure you're ready for a fight?"

"Not really, but do I have a choice?"

~~~

False had left a few hours ago, leaving Impulse alone; she was needed elsewhere. So, completely alone, Impulse started to doubt himself. He had tried everything X had shown him before; resetting chunks, manually teleporting into the Nether, even just relighting the portals. Nothing worked. He couldn't understand how X could deal with things like this.

He heard a knock and turned to see Ren and Tango walking into the room. Impulse almost said something, but the look on Tango's face told him this was important.

"Impulse. I know what I need to do. But I need your help."

"My help?" Impulse asked. "What can I do?"

Tango paused, unsure of how to continue. "I need help finding specific people, but I don't know who."

Impulse was, understandably, confused. "And how can I help?"

"The same way Ren can; another head to bounce ideas off of. Besides, it has to do with the Nether problem."

That got Impulse's attention. He looked for Ren—who had stayed silent so far—to Tango. "We should probably find a better place then. X's base is a little depressing, all things considered."

Ren spoke up. "We can go to my base then."

~

At his base, Ren led them to a cozy room behind his storage area, or what would soon be. The three of them settled down. Or, at least two did; Impulse started pacing.

Ren, settling into a corner, asked, "So where do we start?"

"I think..." Tango, sitting in a chair, took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Four. We need four hermits, one for each cardinal direction. For each of the four elements."

"So...where do we start?"

"With me. I'm fire, I know that much. So we need to find hermits that match earth, air, and water."

Impulse had stopped pacing to say, "You sure?"

Tango sighed. "I'm not sure how, but yes."

"Do you have any other hunches?"

"Grian."

Tango looked up to find Impulse looking baffled. "And you said you need my help?"

Tango ran his fingers through his hair. "Those were the easy ones. The other two I have no idea."

Ren interjected, "Wait, how do you know it's Grian?"

Both Tango and Impulse looked at him. "He has wings, Ren. Real ones. And he's eons better than anyone else at flying," Tango answered. "Seems like air to me."

Ren nodded. "So we just need to find people who have something to do with water or earth?"

"It's the best I have."

~~~

It wasn't their best fighting, but Iskall and Python survived the pigman onslaught with superficial wounds. Now that the Nether was at a more manageable temperature, Iskall was no longer at immediate risk for heatstroke; they could safely search for a temporary safe location to wait this out. Python gathered up everything he found of value while Iskall hoisted Xisuma's body over his shoulder.

Taking to the air, the two scouted for an ideal location, taking frequent breaks to stave off heat exhaustion. After almost an hour and a few close calls, they found an adequate cave and started setting up their temporary base. Iskall, now utterly exhausted, passed out as soon as they were done, alarming Python. After checking on his friend, Python checked the spawn proofing of the cave one last time before settling down himself. Gazing at the block of packed ice, he wondered how long they would be stuck in the Nether. It wasn't long before he fell asleep as well.

~~~

Figuring out the other two hermits Tango needed was harder than they anticipated. Perhaps emboldened by how quickly the first two were identified, Ren and Impulse spent the next hour bouncing ideas around only for Tango to dismiss them. Until...

"Guys, what about Stress?" Both Tango and Impulse looked at Ren, who continued, "I know we've already discussed her, but the more I think about it the more plausible it is"

"What makes you say that?" asked Tango, intrigued.

"You ever wonder how she gets blue ice so fast?"

"I just assumed she used the ice farm Iskall build for her to use," said Impulse.

"Well, yes, but—she doesn't craft it," Ren explained. "She creates it. She showed me. She turned one block of packed ice into blue ice."

"How the— What!?"

Ren looked at Tango. "Is that water enough for you?"

Tango, staring at nothing, said, "It's the closest we've got. Alright, Stress is water. Now we just need to find earth."

"Scar. His terraforming skills could be—"

Tango cut Impulse off. "No, he already has the Vex."

"Oh. That makes sense," said Impulse, a bit miffed.

The three of them settled into a contemplative, edged silence. As the minutes passed, the nervous energy increased, to the point where they all jumped when someone entered the room. Standing in the doorway was, unexpectedly, TFC.

"So, you boys looking for me?"

[bigyack-com]

Year Ender 2019 Fashion: The year of throwback fashion trends, comeback styles, tulle, quilting, typography and more - fashion and trends

2019 has been an interesting year in several ‘comeback’ styles. From making a statement once again on the global runways, some styles were embraced on red carpets, film fashion, street fashion and even for those easy-to-fix everyday wardrobe. If you take a good look around, there’s fashion inspiration all around you. Each season, there’s a buzz about what the next trend is going to be and so we keep our eyes peeled to our mobile phone screens for what to watch out for, what to wear to the next outing, how to wear our hair, carry an accessory or just keep it simple? Here’s a tip, even the seemingly no makeup look/au naturale look requires work and the one who knows it can spot it with that much ease too. As the year comes to a close, it’s only right to call 2019 the year of throwbacks into who wore what and when a decade or two ago! We saw the return of miniature accessories, bike shorts, slip dresses, animal prints and more that gave us a return to the 1990s, while sleeves, tulle and sneakers had quite a moment this year. From style icons like Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian West, Gigi Hadid to Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Malaika Arora and many others closer to home, we’ve seen and learnt how to stay updated with looks that aren’t so new but can still evoke vivid memories, regardless of how long it’s really been.Here’s a round up of the top style trends of the year to add to your shopping bag because it’s always a good time to relive the last season or the one before that. What do you think? Read on.Tulle: Marc Jacobs closed New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020 with a plethora of ruffled gowns, feather-work incorporated in the various styles that made an appearance at this season’s fashion week that also set the other global fashion weeks in motion. It was also the year of Giambattista Valli’s collaboration with H&M where the long and short of tulle debuted in the global markets and most of our wardrobes. Actor Deepika Padukone rocked a lime green tulle dress on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet this year with a head wrap in shell pink. The year also saw a return of the classic Prarie dress mostly paired with exaggerated ruffles and puff sleeves.

Padded headbands: Velvet, bejewelled or embellished — big, puffy and padded headbands were seen making a comeback this year, straight out of a ‘90s lookbook. Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada incorporated thick headbands into Prada’s Spring/Summer 2019 runway show, leading to the return of this vintage favourite. Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf too was often spotted wearing headbands during the course of the show. Padded headbands seemed to have replaced top knots as a preferred summer trend of 2019 and were embraced by fashionistas and influencers worldwide. Kate Middleton was an early adopter of this trend and interestingly, Princess Diana too had sported this trend in the early ‘90s. Designers this year went a step further by increasing the wearability of these headbands by giving them a fashionable facelift such as Victoria Percival’s pearl-studded headband, worn by Hanne.  Tiny sunglasses: Actors Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Alia Bhatt were both seen wearing teeny-tiny ‘Matrix’ sunglasses at separate events but did you wonder if you’ve seen them before somewhere? These sunnies have been having quite a moment ever since Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid sported them. There was also a conversation about how they’re fashionable but not a great addition because they do nothing to protect the eyes, but if I had to, I would wear these cutesy accessory on a cloudy day too. Even Kareena Kapoor Khan has been spotted wearing micro-sunnies.

Baguette: Le Mini Chiquito, a ‘fingerbag’ as it was termed by various fashion insiders, made its debut at the Paris Fashion Week earlier this year. It was a shrunken version of the miniature and already cult $500 (440-euro) ‘Le Chiquito’ bag which celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian were seen clutching between their thumb and forefingers because of its compact size at a mere 5.2 centimetres (two inches) long. While this trend never made it beyond the fashion week, the baguette surely made a comeback from (no guesses) the late nineties lookbook that global celebrities including Priyanka Chopra, Sonam Kapoor, Dua Lipa strutted around carrying this ‘palm’ candy, so to speak. An early 2000s episode of Sex and the City is an easy reminder of this trend when Carrie Bradshaw gets mugged on the streets of New York but doesn’t fear policing the outlaw about his major fashion faux pas of calling her ‘baguette’ a handbag!  Murse: Compact yet voguish bags for men became an interesting trend this year ranging from cross-body, fanny packs, top handle totes, and compact clutches that pretty much managed to steal the limelight at various men’s fashion shows this year. The brand, Hermes, had men walking with the oversized version of their signature Birkin bags. While Kim Jones, Dior’s men designer gave a touch of feminine flair to the tailored suits paired with newsprint styled bags, cross-body bags, and box-like clutches. Additionally, it was Louis Vuitton’s fresh experiments with models carrying flower-adorned handbags. Other notable designers namely Celine and Jacquemus had designs with a beachy finesse to the bags including straw shoulder bags and net-style sling bags. What’s even more interesting is that these bags didn’t just become runway favourites, celebrities including singer Nick Jonas took the lead and proved how the ‘murse’ could be of real use! Oversized bags: Bottega Veneta’s Large Tote and Maison Margiela’s Glam Slam proved how the carry-your-whole-life-with-you-totes were the fashion paradox most fashionistas and fashion influencers embraced after the surge of the baguettes and their variants earlier in the year. The oversized bags refreshing practicality and unrestrained space appealed to most women who have always felt the need for bigger bags to hold multiple objects such as a book, makeup bag, their laptop, a large wallet, planner, umbrella etc.Fluorescent colours: The neon trend might have been introduced atleast half a decade ago and caught on almost instantly, but 2019 was the year when it was seen either complementing an outfit as an accessory or an entire outfit in a shade of neon, be it green, pink or orange. Bollywood stars namely Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Sara Ali Khan, Ayushmann Khurrana and international stars such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner were spotted donning the highlighter hue amongst other names.Animal prints: Loud leopard prints are a bold choice and a favourite amongst several fashionistas. From appearing on a variety of garments including jumpsuits, dresses, pants, coats, animal prints also made it to a collection by Kenzo earlier this year, sported by Game of Thrones star, Maisie Williams. Dolce & Gabbana too had an entire collection including custom-made sneakers dedicated to these prints. In Bollywood, animal prints have been a favourite on Shilpa Shetty Kundra who is seen sporting animal prints in a wide variety in several red carpet outings as she did back in the early ‘90s when she popularised this trend. These have also been seen on popular names such as Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and more recently, Sara Ali Khan.

Sneakers: Design houses namely Coach and Balenciaga to Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton created sculptural, embellished, loud and uncomfortable sneakers that opened to mixed reviews by the consumers globally. Sneakers were sported under gowns and dresses on the red carpet as well. Tennis star Serena Williams wore a comfortable pair under her bright yellow gown at the Met Gala 2019. Malaika Arora chose embellished sneakers to wear under a bodycon dress for a Christmas party. And the list could only be growing with comfort and fashion meeting at a near midpoint, atleast wherever is possible.Gucci described its off-white sneakers as “vintage” and “old school”, with an “allover distressed effect,” on their official website, gucci.com. These shoes are priced at $790 to $890 approximately and come with care instructions to keep the distressed sneakers, dubbed as dirty sneakers by social media, intact the way they’re supposed to be. But a good Samaritan on Instagram who posts under the handle @vetiver_ch took it upon himself to clean these dirty sneakers are present them to the world once again. But that’s not all, even Birkenstocks and Uggs made a comeback in 2019.

Square toe shoes/sandals: If you passionately and diligently follow fashion trends on social media, especially on Instagram, it’s very likely that you’ve fashion influencers talking about and wearing ultra-structured square-toe shoes. Italian high fashion brand Bottega Veneta’s square-toe mules ruled all summer, and women just couldn’t get enough of this odd-looking footwear that could be the next footwear trend that’s here to stay. If you do get around to getting your own pair, wear them with baggy denim, sleek trousers or a tailored suit for a bold yet chic look.Puffer jackets: Who doesn’t love staying in bed with a warm quilt in peak winters? Although it’s a tricky question, usually the answer would be, nearly everyone! One of the biggest and oft recurrent trend is quilting in an array of colours, even striking neons. You can find these on nearly everything from (puffer) jackets to shoes to bags and more. Fashion influencers can be seen rocking quilted leather jackets, mules, pumps, and clothing all over Instagram too. Few designers even introduced comforter-like collars for their jacket collections as winter started to set in.Typography: An interesting trend that was seen on gowns on runways to sarees and dresses in Bollywood fashion, typography was used on clothing for voicing an opinion, to speak the mouth or just to make a quiet statement. Viktor&Rolf, the avant-garde luxury fashion house founded in 1993 presented their Spring/Summer 2019 haute couture collection in Paris with a dramatic representation of one’s state of mind in a big way. Through layers of tulle and ruffles, their wearable art was a paradise for introverts and fashion lovers alike. Speaking of wearable art, several Instagram influencers have been at it through slogan tee-shirts, jackets, shoes and more that have found a niche fan following and it looks like this trend is going to stay. Indian designers namely Masaba Gupta, Rhea Kapoor and Anamika Khanna too brought this trend to their dresses and sarees and the same has been sported by the likes of Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Kareena Kapoor Khan and others. Slip dress: As we’ve already established early on in this piece, a lot of ’90s fashion made a comeback this year, and has been embraced in its classic form or a renewed version by fashion lovers all over the globe. Just like a few other popular trends, the slip dress too found popularity in all Hollywood celebrity wardrobes courtesy designers like Calvin Klein and Narciso Rodriguez. Sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner wore the slip dress more recently and gave it a bit of a spin with boots and a tee inside too. In Bollywood, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Mira Rajput Kapoor have worn the slip dress for an outing and have channelled their diva-esque selves for the paparazzi each time. Way back in 1998, Sex and the City’s theme song has Carrie Bradshaw sporting a naked dress that got everyone talking about what she was (not) wearing, on the show of course. A similar dress was also seen on Kendall Jenner’s recent Miami trip that found resemblance to this two-decade old dress trend.Boiler Suits: Once again a ‘90s trend, Boiler suits too made a comeback in 2019. Inspired by military flight suits, the boiler suit trend is hands-down one of the most difficult unfashionable trends to look fashionable in. Meant to be worn oversized, these trendy jumpsuits look ultra-cool when paired with sneakers, gladiator sandals or mules.Puff sleeves, mutton leg sleeves, bishop sleeves and others: From NYFW, LFW to PFW, sleeves had quite a moment all of this year on various runways, across seasons. Seen in a puffed variety to mutton leg sleeves and a more common, bishop sleeves, celebrities were seen sporting them all this year. Whether you want to channel the vintage Elizabethan age of over-the-top opulence or get-with-the-times with free-spirited bohemian vibes, there is a sleeve for every kind of mood and whim you may fancy. Sleeves add to the drama of an outfit or just speak for themselves on an otherwise plain outfit. Take Anushka Sharma’s silver white dress for example that she wore for an event, the dramatic sleeves did all the talking for her elegant outfit, giving a much-needed edge for an overall sophisticated avatar.

The arrival of some new trends, to the comeback of several favourites, 2019 showed us how the world of fashion may have done away with the rule book to give way to a renewed one. While we saw plenty style trends in detail, there are still a few others that definitely deserve a mention like tactical belts, houndstooth patterns, chain jewellery, biker shorts, nautical patterns, feathers and many more. Here’s looking forward to a new year in fashion, coming soon.Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Read the full article

[pepperminthotchocolate]

Voice Like An Echo: Chapter 3

Of all the things that had kept her awake last night, Naiya never expected the car ride home to be what drove her anxiety over the edge. She assumed it would’ve been leaving the shelter, or at least when she first saw the temporary cage that she was going to be transported in.

But she had been on this side of the Plexiglass before. It had been a few years ago when she was an East-Ender, but she should know what to expect.

The more she thought about it, though, the more it made sense. Now that the rushing around had finally stopped and the adoption preparations were done, she only had time to think, which was a dangerous area for her under normal circumstances. She knew her thoughts were going to be flying like this for a few more days at least.

Unlike her first adoption, now she had ties to where she had come from.  Before this, she was too young to build up any meaningful relationships before she was off to her new owners. She didn’t have the red-headed, self-proclaimed scourge of the West End looking out for her then. She didn’t have a routine established in the way that an eight year stay in the same place would. She’d lost her best friend, her home, and gained a new problem to deal with all in the same hour.

At least it was quiet. She had wedged herself into the farthest corner of the carrying container, as far as she could get from her new owner. They’d only left the shelter about fifteen minutes ago. She could hear the roar of the engine beneath her and the muffled, hypnotic sound of a human male’s voice droning on and on through the radio. She could catch snippets through the thick plastic every now and again; something about independence protests happening in another country.

She hadn’t taken her eyes off of the human since they had left together. He seemed alright now. Kind, even, as he had taken his time with moving her cage and asking if she was ready to go before he picked it up.

The problem was he was just so BIG. Of course all of the handlers at the shelter had been human, but to be honest she was used to the older, retired ladies who volunteered their time or younger college students on summer vacation. Certainly nothing like the thickset giant of a man that loomed before her. Even if the entire image – damn dad jeans and button up shirt and everything - was supposed to be non-threatening, she couldn’t get past his size.

In turn, David was at a loss for what to do. Her staring didn’t do anything to put him at ease. It seemed like every time he looked down at her, she would be staring right back up at him with wide, fear-filled eyes. He supposed that it was to be expected, given her history. At least she hadn’t tried to attack him or escape during transport. That being said, the quiet, still glance that she was giving him was almost worse. He wouldn’t be able to predict how she would react when they arrived home.

Whatever the answer, ignoring each other surely wasn’t it. He cleared his throat. “You really are the strong, silent type, huh?”

Tanaiya quickly turned her gaze away at the sudden address. Would it be rude not to answer him? Probably. She thought that he knew her history. At least, the shelter was SUPPOSED to disclose what had happened before the adoption. Who knew what really went on behind closed doors? Her eyes flickered back up to him for a brief moment before giving the smallest head shake she could possibly manage. She was worried he hadn’t seen it at all until he gave her a gentle smile.

David pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose and looked back up to the road. “We’ll be home soon. I know that you’re probably…worried or scared about having to go somewhere new with someone you don’t know.” He reassured her, his grip tightening a bit on the steering wheel. “I only moved to Greensboro a few months ago, and it was scary enough on my own.”

He glanced down again. Had she even blinked? She hadn’t moved, that was for sure. He tilted his head forward a bit as he drove, as if to emphasize his speech. “Point being…I know you’re going to be quiet for a while and that it’s going to be tough for you to acclimate. I’m going to do my best not to push your boundaries and give you space. Sound like a plan?”

The tiny girl sitting beside him gave another almost imperceivable nod before pulling the grey hood of her sweatshirt further over her head. She still warily peeked out at him with dark, glittering eyes. He smiled and gave the space on the seat next to her enclosure a reassuring pat before returning both hands to the wheel. He didn’t notice that Naiya had driven herself even deeper into the corner at the sudden movement.

In no time at all the car had pulled up to a small parking lot situated next to a lake. As the human came around the side of the car and opened her door, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the few trips she had taken with the shelter staff. She tried to keep herself steady as his hands scooped up her cage and brought it close to his chest.

At the Whitsett-Sedalia shelter, there were mandated bi-weekly excursions into the community for each group that were voted upon by each of the residents. For the West-End, these were mostly limited to local music festivals and trips to the cinema to see popular upcoming movies. There were times when she regretted not taking advantage of these guided trips, but she had found herself becoming detached from the thrill after so many years of residing there. There was never anything she wanted to do, and she would almost always opt to spend her time hanging out in the communal living space alone or with Libby.

Still, there was only so much she could see from beyond the glass door entrance of the shelter. As a matter of fact, she loved this time of year. As she gazed around, she breathed in the cool autumn air trickling in through the vents in her enclosure.

The two seemed to be walking some sort of dirt path leading to the towering apartment complexes. Gnarled, wooden bridges hanging over the water lead the way to an enclosed picnic area adorned with metal tables and benches and even a fire pit. The golden amber and burnt orange trees contrasted strikingly against the bright blue calm of the late-afternoon sky, all of which reflected in the mirror-like surface of the water.

The view was just enough to distract Naiya until she realized they were in front of a large glass door. The giant shifted her cage so that it was seated in the crook of his arm, and he waved a card in front of the scanner above the handle. A button somewhere within the mechanism clicked, and he pulled open the door.

She tried to focus on anything that would disperse the cloud of anxious thoughts in her head. The heavy clunk, clunk, clunk of his footsteps echoed in the enclosed space as they walked up the first flight of stairs and stopped at the door on the right. She could smell someone was cooking something behind one of the other doors, and bass-heavy music was trickling down the staircase from one of the rooms above them.

David shouldered the heavy wooden door open. He tried his best to keep the enclosure steady so as not to jostle his new guest, but she ended up with her hands planted against either side of the corner anyway. “Alright! Welcome home!” He announced, shifting the plastic bag on his wrist down to his elbow and pulling the enclosure into both of his hands. He peeked into the cage and found her looking…well, a little more than worse for the wear.

Naiya blinked hard, trying to center herself from within the little ball she had curled up in. Something about the view from all sides of the see-through cage, not to mention being able to see the massive hands easy cradling the entire room pressed up against the surface just underneath her feet, and vertigo from the sudden, rapid movement was making her sick. She didn’t know if she could do this.

“Huh. We can forgo the tour for now. Or at least, here...” The massive voice rumbled from behind her. Her head fell back against the plastic wall in response, and she closed her eyes as the enclosure was gently lowered to the floor. Or what she thought to be the floor. Her eyes fluttered open and she came face to face with the seat of a rustic-looking, umber colored pull-out sofa. The knotty floor beneath her was a stained dark brown, which turned out to not be the floor at all, but a round, expansive coffee table edged with wrought iron and studs.

She exhaled out slowly and got to her feet just as the human was coming around the other side of the table. He sat himself, thankfully, on the left cushion of the couch instead of directly behind where Tanaiya’s enclosure was. “This is the living room. You can see to the right there’s the patio. Nice little view of the lake out there.”

He pointed over her enclosure to the immense sliding glass door fixed in the side of the living room wall. Past the patio door was a set of two matching easy chairs in front of a cheery, white stone fireplace which housed a large flat-screen television above the mantel. To the left of that was a welcome sight; a walnut bookcase that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and was filled with books of every kind. Naiya smiled a bit at the familiarity, but then turned her attention back to the man.

David pointed down the hall separating the living room from a walled-off room. “Down this hallway are the bedrooms; my room, and my son Nick’s room when he’s here. I guess that’ll be your room for now, if you’re comfortable with that. We’ll have to make other arrangements when he comes.” He laughed a bit. “Or you can tell him to just sleep on the sofa bed out here, if you want to call the room now.”

She gave an uneasy smile, still reeling from the movement but also amused at the thought of her addressing anyone like that, let alone telling a human to find somewhere else to go. “First door on the left is the bathroom, and over here is the kitchen and dining room. We hardly ever use the dining room, though.” She could spot a large, square dining table the same color as the coffee table with a set of four, stark-white padded chairs surrounding it from behind the corner of the half wall.

Tanaiya nodded quietly, trying to remember where everything was. Overall, she would describe the space as polished and put together. The walls were a bit bare aside from the clock hanging in the living room and the painting along the side of the dining room. However, it wasn’t cold, and the patio doors offered a warm light to encompass the accompanying rooms.  

Nothing too fancy or overbearing, just a simple apartment for one. Or two, it would seem. She wondered where this son of his was, and whether or not she could just avoid him altogether. Both of them, preferably. She didn’t want to be rude or God forbid do anything to have her owner act irrationally, but she just needed some time to collect herself.

Her heart jumped into her throat as a sudden shadow came over her. “Guess I should’ve done this first, huh?” The giant behind her muttered, placing his palm over the top of the enclosure. Whoever designed these spaces for safe and easy transport certainly didn’t have the Tiny’s point of view in mind. She couldn’t escape from the image of a hand almost the size of the room bearing down on her, just a few inches from the top of her head.

David snatched his hand away as if he’d been burned. The tiny girl had immediately fallen to her knees and covered her head just at that simple movement. Was she crying? “Oh wait, easy. Calm down. Just trying to get you out of there.” This wasn’t what he’d wanted at all. To his relief, no, there were no tears, but she did turn her eyes sharply up to him as if her fate depended on his next actions.

Of course he’d have to be more delicate about his approach. Why he didn’t realize that with the silent car ride home, he had no idea. He ran a hand over his bearded face. “Tanaiya?” He asked quietly. He debated whether or not he should get down closer so as not to loom over her versus him being so close freaking her out more. By the time he had situated himself kneeling on the floor she was looking up at him again with those wide, soulful eyes. She had no reason to trust him, he knew that. That would be up to him to get started. “That was my fault. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you what I was doing. Can we try that again?”

Naiya’s adrenaline had spiked so hard she wasn’t sure what was real at the time. It was one of those moments where your actions play out in front of you and they involve you, but you aren’t present in your mind to experience them wholly. She was a ghost, watching her shaking hands and shifting feet, standing before a giant of a man who she could tell was trying his best, but dammit if he wasn’t intimidating.  

“We’re going to go nice and slow. I need to take the top of the container off. Ready?”  

She nodded slowly, casting her gaze onto the ground and trying to ignore the ominous shadow that overtook her. A popping sound above her head let her know that was done, and suddenly the barrier between them was gone. He smiled lightly. “See? Not so bad.”

Maybe from his angle. This was the first time she’d truly processed her new owner’s face. The lack of a wall between them really made the difference. His eyes were still as kind as they were through the plastic; deep brown and crinkling in the corners with a smile. Knowledgeable, with a certain depth hidden behind his thick-framed glasses. He was a wide and stoop-shouldered man, visibly tired from the bags under his eyes and the few straggling gray hairs in his unkempt beard and wild mess of curls tucked behind his ears.

And yet, still completely overpowering. It was difficult to see anyone outside of the shelter as a welcoming presence, let alone the person who had taken her from there. She followed his instructions as he gently tipped over the cage onto its side, and soon enough the space where the ceiling was had become the exit in front of her.

He settled back onto the couch, trying to give her some space. She still hadn’t moved. “You can come out, I’ll back off.” No response, although her eyes darted back and forth between him and the spot just outside of the enclosure. The realization dawned on him.

“Do you want to stay in there for a little while?” She looked up at him tentatively, but he could see relief in her eyes. He clapped his hands on his knees and slowly stood. “Take your time. You can come out whenever you’re ready.” He could barely make out the faint nod she gave him.

Poor little thing. David hadn’t wanted to leave her alone, but that was probably the thing she needed right now. She looked as if she were ready to bolt as soon as his back was turned. He couldn’t help but peek at her one last time as he moved over to the kitchen to get dinner started.

  August 17th,

My worst fears have been confirmed. The tolerance for Tiny relationships seems to only extend to what they can make up in profit. He’ll be leaving tomorrow, and the little one and I the next day. We don’t know where we’ll be going, or if there will be any hope of contacting one another again. What kind of monsters would allow a family to bloom before tearing it apart?

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Finally getting to the interesting part of the story! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2: http://pepperminthotchocolate.tumblr.com/post/163719760508/voice-like-an-echo-chapter-2

Chapter 4: http://pepperminthotchocolate.tumblr.com/post/166695955113/voice-like-an-echo-chapter-4

[onceland]

Once Upon a Time bosses tease 'satisfying' finale

The Final Battle has begun — and not everyone will make it out alive.

Ahead of Once Upon a Time‘s two-hour season finale, the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray) unleashed a curse aimed to separate Emma (Jennifer Morrison) from her loved ones. Where is everyone? Can they break this curse?

Here’s the newly released logline for the season-ender: “Henry awakens to a cursed Storybrooke and discovers Emma has been in the mental hospital, and the Black Fairy is the new mayor. Henry attempts to help Emma regain her memory while Gold tries to find out what has really happened to Belle. Meanwhile, Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena, and Hook are trapped in a crumbling Fairy Tale Land and desperately try to figure out a way to be reunited with Emma and Henry.”

The season finale will feature guest star appearances by several familiar faces, including Jasmine (Karen David), Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz), Tiger Lily (Sara Tomko), and Violet (Olivia Steel Falconer), among others, as well as Andrew J. West and Alison Fernandez, who are credited simply as Young Man and Little Girl. Check out our theory on that here.

Following a recent screening of the musical episode, executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz sat down with press members to answer some burning questions about the finale:

Now that the curse has hit, what’s in store for the finale? ADAM HOROWITZ: There’s a curse that’s coming. We’re well aware that we’ve done a curse occasionally in the past on the show, but this time we’re trying to do a little twist on it. EDWARD KITSIS: I would say that the Final Battle and the curse are all tied in one, and the first act of the finale will make sense of what we’re doing this time.

Is there a geographic move, because they’re talking about how everyone is going to be split up? KITSIS: For some people, there may be a geographic move. HOROWITZ: It’s a combo platter kind of curse. There’s a bunch of different things that happen. KITSIS: The Black Fairy is not to be messed with. She’s got some airtight [plans].

When you approach a curse, what’s the thought process behind it? Any set rules? HOROWITZ: In this case, it was less about thinking of it as a curse, and thinking about it as What is the Final Battle? We had a concept for what this Final Battle would be and we kind of worked backwards from that, and that led to in this curse that you saw hinted at in the musical episode that then starts to play out in the two-hour season finale.

Will everyone make it out alive? KITSIS: Can’t promise you that.

Can you talk about the process of breaking the curse? KITSIS: I would say that how they’re going to break the curse is kind of the conundrum of the episode because the usual tricks don’t work anymore.

A big part of this musical episode was Emma not being alone when she goes into the Final Battle and we see everyone gets sucked into the curse. Will the Black Fairy be going into the Final Battle alone or will she be bringing Rumple and her people? KITSIS: She’ll be bringing her spicy attitude and that’s all she needs.

What can you tease about Rumple’s role in the finale? KITSIS: I will say the Final Battle will be thematic for everybody and that Rumple, as a man who is a difficult man to love, I think he will have a very difficult choice to make again.

What is the theme? KITSIS: I would say the theme of the final two hours is belief.

As opposed to hope? HOROWITZ: Do we ever not do hope? KITSIS: Hope and belief are all the same. They’re friends, they’re roommates.

Speaking vaguely about the finale, what are some of the characters that you’re most happy with their journey and arc from the beginning of season 1 to the end of season 6? KITSIS: Absolutely Emma.

What do you think she learned the most? KITSIS: I think she learned to trust other people, and I think that’s the hardest thing to do. When you are used to being on your own, it’s very hard to let someone in and have it be real. It’s very easy to be surface and “like” their stuff on Facebook; it’s hard to actually be the person they call, and I think that Emma has gone from somebody that slept in her car and denied she had a kid to someone who actually has found a real life, and to me, that’s the show, right there. HOROWITZ: I agree, and I would say adding to that also Regina, who has gone through so much from where she started in the pilot to where she is now. I’d say in the season finale, there are real echoes to the pilot, and where she began, and where she and Emma began, and where they are now. It’s been a tumultuous journey for both of them as they’ve grown and changed over the years. For us — and hopefully you and the fans will agree — we think it’s a satisfying place they find themselves.

Once Upon a Time‘s two-hour finale airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

x

[junker-town]

Can Georgia enjoy ‘third-and-Grantham’ for a change?

New Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s aggression is paying off so far, but UGA fans are hoping for a relapse.

This is what you think about when you think of a Todd Grantham defense:

A third (or fourth) down in an obvious passing situation, when Grantham dials up a blitz that looks like the whole damn team got sic’d on the quarterback in the huddle. When it works and the blitz hits home, it is a slobberknocking example of effective pressure.

This is Grantham’s calling card, and it’s basically become a meme.

When all else fails: BLITZ.

emotional blitzing from Todd Grantham, as sure as the sun sets in the west

— BUM CHILLUPS (@edsbs) November 12, 2017

: Hold R2, button.#4thandGrantham#RelentlessEffort#GoGators pic.twitter.com/fKTV0Hhmge

— Florida Gators (@FloridaGators) October 1, 2018

The Gators brought eight players on that game-ender against Mississippi State, and even Grantham said it wasn’t supposed to be that many players. But Grantham is known to be aggressive for better — like against Mississippi State — or worse, like when he coached for MSU the year prior. Those Bulldogs brought six against Alabama in a late-game situation on first down.

The risk didn’t pay off.

That was also a bit of a problem when he coached at Georgia.

Grantham cut his teeth at Virginia Tech under Frank Beamer and alongside Bud Foster, who is legendary for his pressure schemes. It’s no surprise that Grantham relies on the blitz.

When Mark Richt was coaching at Georgia, he called Foster to see if he was interested in coming to Athens to be his defensive coordinator. Foster passed, but recommended Grantham, who would have the job from 2010-2013.

Dawg fans weren’t exactly thrilled with his tenure, an up-and-down stretch in which UGA held up really well against third down in one season and not so great in the others.

2010: 42 percent

2011: 28.9 percent (No. 3 nationally)

2012: 36.5 percent

2013: 39.5 percent

That led to #ThirdAndGrantham becoming a thing on social media.

The easy assumption is that Grantham’s defense was blitzing on basically every third down and allowing his defense to get carved up. Perception about Grantham became reality, but regardless of how it happened, his defenses weren’t great on third-and-long.

The Gators aren’t exactly elite on third down overall this season, but have been getting better over the last few games.

And they’re making reference to the popular UGA fan complaint ahead of the two teams meeting.

Florida with an interesting approach in its game notes this week: pic.twitter.com/97ETIptkAR

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) October 22, 2018

Those stats offered by Florida miss an ounce of context, because two of the last three opponents (LSU and Vanderbilt) are among the worst third down teams in the country. But the sentiment is there. For now, Florida is enjoying third/fourth-and-Grantham. It remains to be seen if Florida will continue on this trajectory, or if they’ll regress to the mean on third down.

He’ll get a chance to spring his defense on his former team in the Cocktail Party, and we’ll see how the Dawgs are able to handle it with a quarterback situation that’s currently a bit of a mess after the loss to LSU in which the Dawgs went five of 14 against third-and-Aranda.

[aion-rsa]

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Questions Answered

https://ift.tt/2DqRbNi

The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 2.

The conclusion to The Umbrella Academy season 2 is all about escalation. How does a second season top a first season that ended with the world destroyed and all its characters flung black through time?

The answer turned out to be quite simple: bring them back to the present, of course! But as the final moment of The Umbrella Academy season 2 reveals, this isn’t the present that the Hargreeves family is familiar with. Both their dad, Reginald, and their brother, Ben, are still alive. Not only that but there’s also no such thing as The Umbrella Academy in this new reality – only the mysterious Sparrow Academy in its place.

Like any good season-ender, the last minutes of “The End of Something” raise more questions than they answer. And the second season of The Umbrella Academy already had plenty of questions floating out there to begin with.

With that in mind, we enlisted the help of Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman to answer some of those questions. Blackman won’t tell us exactly who The Sparrow Academy is obviously…he’s got a third season to worry about, after all. But he did provide some crucial context to their introduction and answered many of our other lingering Umbrella Academy season 2 questions. 

So without further ado…

Is Lila One of the 43?

The premise of The Umbrella Academy is a simple, yet compelling one. On October 1, 1989, 43 women across the world suddenly gave birth despite previously never having shown any signs of pregnancy. Reginald Hargreeves tracked down as many of those kids as he could but only ended up with 7. Such is the case in Gerard Way and Gabriel  Bá’s original comic series and such is the case in the show as well. That means that there are 36 other super-powered 30-year-olds out there. 

Season 2 now raises the question: is Lila (Ritu Arya) one of them?

“Yes,” Blackman answers definitively. 

“Lila’s a great character and I really love the actor, Ritu. She plays her so wonderfully. I came into season two wanting to introduce at least one more (superpowered person). And it was too easy just to meet Lila with no complications.”

Blackman also further clarifies that Lila’s power is indeed mimicry. She is able to use any one of the Umbrella Academy’s abilities, provided that she is in close contact with them at the moment. Klaus got that bit right. 

Blackman also confirms that Lila is here to stay should the show get a third season.

“She’s one of the 43 going forward. She’s one of them and they have to get to figure out more about who she is. One of the complications is that she and Diego are in love with each other now, despite who Lila’s mother is.”

That’s right, friends: superpowered quasi-incest is back on the menu!

What Was With Harlan’s Powers? 

Speaking of suddenly introduced powers – what was the deal with Harlan’s Vanya-like abilities in season 2? Harlan was presumably born in the late ‘50s – a full thirty years before the superpowered kids were born in 1989. 

Harlan also doesn’t display any supernatural features until Vanya gives him CPR after finding him at the bottom of a nearby lake. Did Vanya somehow transfer her powers to Harlan in a sort of reverse Dementor’s Kiss? According to Blackman, that’s exactly what happened. 

“It’s supposed to be a little mysterious. But when Harlan has seemingly died, Vanya did something to him in the way she revived him. She’s not realizing at the moment, but she gave a little bit of herself and some power to him. The effect there is that you can see a little bit of this yellow glowy stuff go from her to him. 

Read more

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The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Ending Explained

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“Then later in the season, when she realizes that she’s done that and Harlan is sort of out of control with his new ability, she tries desperately to remove it from him. The final part of it is ‘was she successful?’ Because he seems to still have a little bit of an ability when we see him in the last episode. I don’t think she’s been quite as successful.”

Sissy (Marin Ireland) tells Vanya that she and Harlan are California-bound following the events of this season. Who knows what they’ll get up to on the West Coast? Perhaps a slightly super-powered 65-year-old Harlan will play a role in season 3’s alternate reality. 

What’s Up With The Swedes and A.J. Carmichael?

One of the biggest changes that The Umbrella Academy season 2 makes from the comic book volume on which it’s based is in its villains. Hazel and Cha-Cha make their premiere in The Umbrella Academy volume 2 “Dallas.” The show, however, already enjoyed the use of the cartoon-masked assassins in season 1. 

So into their place in season 2 step The Swedes. They are mostly-silent Commission assassins, and yes: brothers, according to Blackman. 

“It’s not by coincidence that we have three brothers, the Swedes, for our bad guys on The Umbrella Academy. Then we have The Handler and Lila too. They’re all different families, they all have different dynamics. I wanted to see if we can have all of those (family dynamics)  play out.”

Interestingly, another one of the comic’s big baddies makes an appearance in the form of the Commission’s goldfish/boss A.J. Carmichael.

“Some of the things in the graphic novel that I love, I just simply can’t do because I need a Marvel feature length type budget to do them. But it was really important to bring Carmichael in,” Blackman says.

“I just have to say the level of research (VFX studio Weta) did was remarkable. Not only did they get real fish to look at, but they went down to the details of the scales and tried to get some more water in (Carmichael’s tank) so you get the water sloshing around right.”

Of course, the real villain of The Umbrella Academy season 2 was a familiar face. Which begs the question…

Is The Handler Really Dead This Time?

“I say this with certainty that The Handler did die this year. She is dead and gone.”

Oh. Well ok then. Blackman offers up this elegy for Kate Walsh’s stylish villain:

“We just loved The Handler so much and the fans really responded to her.  I’ve worked with Kate Walsh in two or three shows now – I always love working with her. The Handler was such an interesting character. I wanted to tell a story of what happens if you devote your whole life to a company and then you feel screwed over like she does and go rogue. The Handler going rogue allows us to have a lot of complications. She can really screw with a lot of things. That’s why The Handler was important.”

Is Baby Pogo the Next Baby Yoda? 

“Of course, I would love that. You know, we love baby Yoda. But we might love baby Pogo a little bit more. He’s quite cute in his pajamas and his spacesuit, I think.”

What is The Sparrow Academy?

And now we’ve arrived at the biggest lingering question from The Umbrella Academy season 2. What…or who is The Sparrow Academy? Before Steve Blackman offers up his perspective, it’s worth taking a look at the origins of The Sparrow Academy from the comics. 

Read more

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The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Goes Back to the Past

By Alec Bojalad

Though season 2 closely corresponds with volume 2 of the comics, The Sparrow Academy doesn’t turn up until the third volume “Hotel Oblivion.” Even then, the new team doesn’t arrive until the very end of the seventh and final issue and is never actually named. It is reasonable to assume that they would be called “The Sparrow Academy” though given that their costumes are full of sparrow iconography. It wasn’t until they appeared in the final moments of season 2 that they were even given a name. And Blackman confirms that they are indeed the same Sparrow team from the comics. 

“Yeah. They were introduced in volume three. I have a wonderful collaboration with Gerard and we talk a lot about where he wants to go with the different volumes of the comics. I had an idea for the end of this season, a little similar to what the Sparrows were. When I heard he was doing the Sparrows, I got super excited, like that’s fantastic.”

Here is what the team looks like in “Hotel Oblivion” as they unexpectedly arrive to help The Umbrella Academy round up dozens of escaped villains. 

Though we only get to see their silhouette on the show, it’s quite clear that this is the same team, based on the floating cube behind one of the characters. It’s unknown what this floating cube does as it’s unknown what any of  The Sparrow Academy’s powers are (though some seem to involve strength, turning into ravens, and the ability to channel pain). Blackman himself says he’s not sure whether he’ll use the powers Way and Bá create for the team or just develop his own for them. 

“I think it will be open for me to decide. Gerard has such wonderful ideas and if they work for our storytelling, we’ll use it. If not, I’ll come up with my own version of it. My goal is to keep as much as I can for the graphic novel fans for as long as it works within the setting of a 10-episode show.” 

Even with the comic material and Blackman’s generous participation in this exercise, there is still so much we don’t know about The Sparrow Academy. In the comics, Vanya’s “Mother” (analogous to Grace in the show) takes her to meet them as they’re her “real” family. The team has a Hargreeves-like foppish dandy of a leader known as “Deever.” They also employ explicitly Christian crosses at their headquarters. Why? That’s all anyone’s guess.

In the reality of the show, it’s worth asking whether The Sparrow Academy even existed prior to The Umbrella Academy fudging the timeline in Dallas. While the ending of season 2 makes clear that the Hargreeves are in an alternate or new timeline due to Reginald and Ben’s involvement, would The Sparrow Academy have existed in their original timeline, albeit somewhere else in the world? After all, as the reveal of Lila as a superpowered individual reminds us in season 2 – there are 36 more of these people out there. That also remains to be seen. What we do know is that they’re here now and set to play a big role in season 3. 

Is Ben Number One?

The existence of Ben Hargreeves as part of The Sparrow Academy raises another fun question. Is Ben “Number One” for this new team, echoing the final page of “Hotel Oblivion”?

“No comment, no comment. Spoiler, no comment,” Blackman says. 

Whether Ben is Number One, Number Six, or gets a new designation altogether from Reginald, the good news is that actor Justin H. Min gets to stay on the show. And that’s good news that Blackman got to deliver right after delivering the episode nine script. Now he gets to deliver the good news of Ben’s continued involvement in the series to everyone else.

“We do get to meet a new Ben who’s flesh and blood,” Blackman says. “Who he is, what his personality type is, I will not tell you – that will be something of a spoiler. But he gets to now interact with all the other characters, which is going to be a delight.”

What’s Next for Season 3?

The good news is that Blackman says that season 3 is in the “planning stages” currently, suggesting at least a little confidence that the show will get a third season.

While the first two seasons have roughly corresponded to their respective Umbrella Academy comic book volumes, there’s a real chance that season 3 could deviate from the third volume, “Hotel Oblivion” entirely. That arc deals with an Arkham Asylum-like “hotel” in another dimension where Reginald Hargreeves keeps all of The Umbrella Academy’s defeated enemies. The show has opted not to include some of the show’s more colorful side villains, instead focusing more on the goings-on at The Commission. With The Commission out of the way and the gang in a sort of alternate dimension of their own, there are many directions the third season can take. Still, Blackman says he’s happy to use the original text as a jumping off point.

“Whatever I can use as a springboard or whatever inspirations I can take from it, I will try to do, so long as it’s in the constraints of what we do as a television show. I’ll take that as a challenge for season three.”

Season 3 will indeed be a challenge, with the introduction of an entirely new superhero team and the presence of Reginald Hargreeves to deal with once again. But now that the show has finally averted the apocalypse, maybe it can delve into the titular team’s daddy issues.

The post The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Questions Answered appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[lucasdibble56-blog]

Derma Divine Assessment (IMPROVED 2017).

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[nuzblog]

November 29th, 2017

MORN

At 4:30 in the morning, I healed my team using the fight against Bugsy and headed West to Ilex Forest, to be confronted by my rival, Luster, with IndieCindy switched for Rainwater.

Rainwater's Mud Slap took out Gastly with no issue. Rock Star's Rock Throw does similar for Zubat.

And then... well, I already knew thanks to the fishermen on route 32 that I've been having issues with water types, and unfortunately, the answer to that problem is on the other side of this battle.

Luster's Croconaw one-shots Rainwater. As they say in the business... "oh fuck." I switch to DrinkyBird, trying to get SOMETHING going, but she gets critically low on health, and Rock Star is 4x weak. I get stuck just using potions over and over, but I'm either gonna run out or he's gonna crit and I'll be done for, so I make a snap judgement and switch to Rock Star. As expected, he does down, but it gives me that extra turn of healing, and it lets me reset his Leers.

At this point I notice that he's using Leer and Scratch instead of the STAB Water Gun he's got, because he knows that my Special Defense is my highest stat. I Growl him down and try to survive as best as I can until he changes gears and starts using Water Gun instead, healing when I can. I use a found X Attack, and keep attacking and healing, trying desperately to hold on, at one point being dropped all the way down to 1 hp but managing to survive... and after an awful slog of a battle, losing two dear friends, I beat him. This was very nearly a run-ender.

Ilex Forest is my next stop, for a Pokemon capture and Farfetch'd herding. Now, my initial plan here was to enter at night, where I would essentially either capture an Oddish or a Paras, both of which would cure my Water problem, and then also get Headbutt and be able to potentially catch an Exeggcute, which would do similar but would also be a Pokemon I haven't used before.

Of course, I entered in the morning, so I got a Weedle. Which, is fine, it just means I can DEFINITELY get an Exeggcute from Azalea Town. I name it "KnifeFight" and, with a lack of anything else I particularly want to teach Cut in the party, I start backtracking to collect berries and grinding it to level 10.

Speaking of grinding, the level curve in this game is already bothering me. Why is the highest level Pokemon encountered in Ilex Forest at Level 6? We are two gyms into the game, have fought Level 16 Pokemon with trainers behind them, and yet, the wild Pokemon aren't even level 10. They're 2-3 levels higher than the ones found on the first route of the game. This is dumb! Why is it this way???

Anyway grinding takes six eternities but whatever, eventually I have a Beedrill and I can teach it cut and actually progress through the game. I also get to knock out some of those cut trees from earlier in the game, which mostly just makes the walk easier.

Back in the forest, but not for long, I grab Headbutt and re-exit to Azalea Town, find a nice tree and start butting it.

After 6 Weedles, followed by a Beedrill, followed by 11 more Weedles and a Kakuna, FINALLY, some eggs fall out of the tree. I mean, an Exeggcute. NOW I can progress through the game! Its name is "Deliver", and...

Hm. I hadn't actually checked its movepool until now. It might not be as useful as anticipated. The TMs for Psychic and Giga Drain are both in Kanto, and while it'll get Confusion in just 9 levels, the first and only STAB Grass move it gets by level up will be... SolarBeam at Level 43.

My only other option is Mega Drain... which is an egg move. Well, fortunately, I am about to be at the Pokemon Daycare... so, I guess that's what I'm doing - catching a Sunkern at the National Park during the day, hoping that's my first encounter, and hoping it's male so I can breed it with my thankfully female Exeggcute. That's a lot of hopes. And, to muddy the issue, I then stopped playing for the day, and the next day was Thursday, which means the Bug Catching Contest is on, which if my understanding is correct, would have prevented me from catching a Sunkern.

November 30th, 2017

MORN

I drop Deliver off at the daycare, and head for Goldenrod, where the Name Rater lives, allowing me to change the name of my Hoothoot from DrinkyBird to T.I.M.E.

Speaking of time, just do be extra safe, I decide to play around with it a bit. I set it exactly 36 hours forwards, putting me in the daytime of Friday, and safely outside of the reach of the Bug Catching Contest. I do this by holding Down, B and Select at the title screen and inputting a password that is generated from my character's name, ID Number and current money total. Thanks, PsyPokes.com!

I head to the National Park ASAP, and... yes!! The Sunkern I need is exactly what I get! I name it Sundial, shove it right into the daycare, and go attend to some business in Goldenrod. I grab the Bicycle, I fight some guys without meaning to... actually, can I say some stuff about the dialogue in this game? One guy said he gave his Pokemon a haircut, which would make sense cause the haircut place is right there by him... but then he sent out a LICKITUNG. Which, if it has hair... I super duper don't want to know where. Also, one trainer said "Behold my graceful BALL dexterity." Like, capitalized like that, because of this game's weird thing with capitalization. (Seriously, how did it take until Gen 5 for them to fix the antiquated adventure game CAPITALIZATION of KEYWORDS?) Which is just hilarous.

Anyway, while waiting for my eggs and seeds to breed, I run to some freshly available routes and catch some new boys for my team.

On Route 34, I find a Drowzee, who I name Nightmare. Again, this is a Pokemon I used recently, so... boxed.

On Route 35, I found a Male Nidoran! I name it Showdown, and since it has Double Kick, I'm definitely at least gonna use it for Whitney! Speaking of, that's a whole dangerous thing. She's well known as being a difficult fight. As I collect andrun around to grind and hatch the egg, I think about my strategy. I also backtrack for berries while trying to hatch it, and rematch Hiker Anthrony while I'm at it.

Eventually, the egg hatches into more eggs, which I name Fine, and I'm grinding it from Level 5 to something usable! And yes, it has Mega Drain! I use both my heals in the process of grinding, the one in Goldenrod and the one from the Luster fight at the beginning of this post. Also, wow, they are REALLY pushing the Game Boy Printer in this game, huh? Like, wow.

NITE

I slept, and kept playing when I woke up! I fought the gym trainers, and backtracked ALL THE WAY to New Bark to heal, and then went back to Goldenrod, and... sigh, bluh, FINE. I go ahead and fight Whitney.

The really dangerous thing here is that since she only has two Pokemon, well... so do I. Showdown and IndieCindy accompany me, while the full-health T.I.M.E. and Fine (and the essentially obsolete KnifeFight for that matter) are boxed, and I head for the leader herself.

As with most gym leaders, their non-ace Pokemon are basically meaningless. Clefairy goes down quick and easy. Miltank, though... hff. I lead against it with IndieCindy and get off two Smokescreens before his health got too low to keep going. I switched, healed, used Double Kick, and was disappointed by how much damage it did. Showdown (who had evolved in the process of grinding) was infatuated, so I switched back to the restored Cindy and got off some more smokescreens, and so it goes. Friggin' Milk Drink... such garbage.

Showdown got killed by a critical Stomp, which leaves me one Pokemon away from the end of the run, yet again. Ember burned Miltank, but I was infatuated back. It could be a simple war of attrition thanks to the burn, if not for Milk Drink making it last way longer.... but I did, EVENTUALLY, manage to do it!!

I lay Showdown to rest. He wasn't with me for long, but he served his purpose very well. I pull TIME and Fine from the PC, and head off towards Route 36, to fight that Sudowoodo!!!

Rock Throw takes down a solid half of Fine's health. That's less than ideal. I manage to put it to sleep and heal, and drain its health, catching it handily! I name it Wiggles. Since I'm close enough, I run back to Cherrygrove, and heal there, finally.

On Route 37, after 3 Hoothoots, I run into a Stantler! But... I ran out of balls trying to catch it.

While exploring Ecruteak, Luster appears, catching me off guard. Fortunately I match his team size (4 to 4) but I'm unprepared for the battle.

I mostly get through it alright. T.I.M.E. evolved into Noctowl. And Fine... well. Fine died. Which sucks, and means I wasted a lot of time, but also... I have an infinite supply of fresh Mega Drain Exeggcutes. I run back to the daycare after talking to Bill in the Center, retrieving another egg egg, and in Goldenrod I visited Bill's house, and he gave me an Eevee, which I named Furries! Which also means I can't get a Pokemon from the Goldenrod Game Corner. :P

You may notice that “Furries” doesn’t lead to a link to the song in question there. That’s because the official video from Neil’s own Youtube channel featuring that song has been wrongfully taken down based on a false copyright claim, despite it being Neil’s original mashup work. If you want to listen to it, it’s track 3 on the freely available album Mouth Silence.

I catch Pokemon in the Burned Tower (a Koffing, named Fuzzy) and on Route 38 (Meowth, named Cat Hacks) and box them both before going to work... and then I put off writing this for nearly a week! But I did that, so I'll be playing again soon.

[ouatindia-blog]

Once Upon a Time bosses tease 'satisfying' finale

The Final Battle has begun — and not everyone will make it out alive. Ahead of Once Upon a Time‘s two-hour season finale, the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray) unleashed a curse aimed to separate Emma (Jennifer Morrison) from her loved ones. Where is everyone? Can they break this curse? Here’s the newly released logline for the season-ender: “Henry awakens to a cursed Storybrooke and discovers Emma has been in the mental hospital, and the Black Fairy is the new mayor. Henry attempts to help Emma regain her memory while Gold tries to find out what has really happened to Belle. Meanwhile, Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena, and Hook are trapped in a crumbling Fairy Tale Land and desperately try to figure out a way to be reunited with Emma and Henry.” The season finale will feature guest star appearances by several familiar faces, including Jasmine (Karen David), Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz), Tiger Lily (Sara Tomko), and Violet (Olivia Steel Falconer), among others, as well as Andrew J. West and Alison Fernandez, who are credited simply as Young Man and Little Girl. Following a recent screening of the musical episode, executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz sat down with press members to answer some burning questions about the finale: Now that the curse has hit, what’s in store for the finale? ADAM HOROWITZ: There’s a curse that’s coming. We’re well aware that we’ve done a curse occasionally in the past on the show, but this time we’re trying to do a little twist on it. EDWARD KITSIS: I would say that the Final Battle and the curse are all tied in one, and the first act of the finale will make sense of what we’re doing this time. Is there a geographic move, because they’re talking about how everyone is going to be split up? KITSIS: For some people, there may be a geographic move. HOROWITZ: It’s a combo platter kind of curse. There’s a bunch of different things that happen. KITSIS: The Black Fairy is not to be messed with. She’s got some airtight [plans]. RELATED: Once Upon a Timestars on ‘epic’ finale showdown. When you approach a curse, what’s the thought process behind it? Any set rules? HOROWITZ: In this case, it was less about thinking of it as a curse, and thinking about it as What is the Final Battle? We had a concept for what this Final Battle would be and we kind of worked backwards from that, and that led to in this curse that you saw hinted at in the musical episode that then starts to play out in the two-hour season finale. Will everyone make it out alive? KITSIS: Can’t promise you that. Can you talk about the process of breaking the curse? KITSIS: I would say that how they’re going to break the curse is kind of the conundrum of the episode because the usual tricks don’t work anymore. A big part of this musical episode was Emma not being alone when she goes into the Final Battle and we see everyone gets sucked into the curse. Will the Black Fairy be going into the Final Battle alone or will she be bringing Rumple and her people? KITSIS: She’ll be bringing her spicy attitude and that’s all she needs. What can you tease about Rumple’s role in the finale? KITSIS: I will say the Final Battle will be thematic for everybody and that Rumple, as a man who is a difficult man to love, I think he will have a very difficult choice to make again. What is the theme? KITSIS: I would say the theme of the final two hours is belief. As opposed to hope? HOROWITZ: Do we ever not do hope? KITSIS: Hope and belief are all the same. They’re friends, they’re roommates. Speaking vaguely about the finale, what are some of the characters that you’re most happy with their journey and arc from the beginning of season 1 to the end of season 6? KITSIS: Absolutely Emma. RELATED: Once Upon a Time bosses say finale will offer closure What do you think she learned the most? KITSIS: I think she learned to trust other people, and I think that’s the hardest thing to do. When you are used to being on your own, it’s very hard to let someone in and have it be real. It’s very easy to be surface and “like” their stuff on Facebook; it’s hard to actually be the person they call, and I think that Emma has gone from somebody that slept in her car and denied she had a kid to someone who actually has found a real life, and to me, that’s the show, right there. HOROWITZ: I agree, and I would say adding to that also Regina, who has gone through so much from where she started in the pilot to where she is now. I’d say in the season finale, there are real echoes to the pilot, and where she began, and where she and Emma began, and where they are now. It’s been a tumultuous journey for both of them as they’ve grown and changed over the years. For us — and hopefully you and the fans will agree — we think it’s a satisfying place they find themselves. Once Upon a Time‘s two-hour finale airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.