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melody-the-unwritten · 5 years

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Lantern Festival {Jazz}

Where: Lantern Festival Who: Jazz What: Cuteness

@not-your-prize-princess

MELODY

MELODY had been to the lantern festival a couple times. Once last year and another when her trip to visit conceded with the festival and she always loved it. So much so that she had built up the courage to ask Jasmine to come with her. She wanted the other girl to see it with her. For them to let their lanterns float and even though it put a blush on her cheeks Melody was more than excited for this night.

Even while she sat crossed legged on the grass staring at the lantern. "Yours looks good already." Melody offered taking a cheeky little look over at Jasmine's. "I tried to plan but now I cant decide of my plans." Half of her wished she could draw a mermaid if she was honest. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE was honestly excited to head to the lantern festival. The fact that Melody wanted her to come with her made it that much better. It was amazing to be able to go to one of these places with a girl she was interested in. It made it all that much more magical.

She blinked, surprised as she glanced up from where she had been carefully making the queen chess piece on her lantern. "Oh...thank you. I mean it's...a work in progress. I want to get as many colors on it as I can. But maybe I should shape it first. What do you think?" @Ashley

MELODY

Melody smiled up at Jasmine because even if it was a work in progress melody thought it was pretty. And it gave her an excuse to not pay attention to her own drawing. Or lack there of one.

"If you make a strong outline the colour should just slip right in. And you can always fix the outline after if the colour drifts a little. " melody offered with a shrug. Little ideas slipping into her own mind now that she was thinking of colour. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE hummed. "Oh...that's a good idea. I want to make sure the shape is still pretty clear..." Even if people might not understand why she did the outline she did, it meant something to her. And that was what mattered in that sense.

"What about you? What are you putting on your lantern there?" @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY nodded glancing at the chess piece. She didnt know which one it was but she at least knew of it. "I think it will be. Plus I'll help you fix it if it isn't as clear. I promise." And melody already had an idea of what to do if needed. If only her mind was so clear for herself.

"I dont know. I was thinking maybe a sea motif. Start with a few sea shells and move on from there. I want to at least do a gradient of blues if I dont do the sea thing." @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE smiled. "Well you are a real gift," she informed Melody, delighted by the offer of help. "and an artist from what I remember right? Getting help from an expert."

She tilted her head as she worked at the outside frame of it, careful with each line. "A sea motif. That sounds beautiful." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY'S cheeks turned a touch pink but smiled. "Its only a hobby so not too much of an expert but I can handle a few straight lines. " melody explained with a shrug focusing back on her own starting to draw the outline of one shell on the bottom.

"My brother and I used to collect them. I have a whole box full of them actually. Places we travelled to when I was younger." @leanobeano

JASMINE

"Hey now, more expert than me," JASMINE pointed out helpfully as she started to add a little color, now that the basic frame was set up. "A collection of seashells? That sounds lovely. What do you do with them? I mean you could decorate with them couldn't you?" @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY scrunched her nose at Jasmine at the tease even if she appreciated it. "Yeah some people do. Paint on them or make jewelry but I couldnt really draw back then and I thought they were pretty the way they were so they were just on display for a long time." Now they were in a box because melody couldnt bare to look at them let alone do something with them. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE nodded. "Ahh I see. Well maybe you could do something with them now. Decorate your place with them or something. It would definitely give a great atmosphere. Or so I imagine anyway." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY pursed her lips before she shook her head. " a story for another time but I dont think I'm ready to bring them out of there box." Meldoy admitted before putting a smile back on her face. "What about your chess piece? Is that uh I dont know which one it is." @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE hummed. "Okay...well this one..." she debated for a minute and then shrugged. "It's the queen. A powerful piece on the chess board. That's the kind of person I'd like to be." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY pursed her lips and nodded. "Right if you take the queen you've basically won right? I've never tried to play." @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE nodded. "That's right. The Queen's powerful. Much more than the king, which i think is amazing." @Ashley

MELODY

"You know I think that's pretty much right for situations even now." MELODY tempted. "It shouldn't matter and what not but like I think that a queen should be able to be as powerful or more powerful especially without someone by their side." @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE hummed, just opening her mouth to go into the Queen thing a little more in depth when she heard a shout that chilled her to her core. "Princess Jasmine! Your highness I know you are in this town. Come out now!" She flinched, ducking her head behind the lantern. "Shit. I...I think I should go..." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY'S head popped up unlike Jasmine's and she looked for the source of the sound before glancing at Jasmine again. She knew a little. She remembered some of it from that dream. Enough that she could make an assumption.

And if she was right then she needed to do something. "Stay here for a second." Melody murmured pushing herself up and putting the lantern down.

"Excuse me did I hear you correctly? You're looking for princess Jasmine?" @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE's eyebrows furowed. "But-" she started, before she ducked down, the advisor turning toward Melody as she spoke. God her heart was pounding like crazy. This wasn't supposed to happen. All she wanted was a good night with a beautiful girl.

The advisor turned to face Melody. *"Yes. Have you seen her? I know her to be residing in this town. I must find her as soon as possible." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY nodded before pursing her lips. "Well maybe? You see my friend is super into history and she thought she had found the princess. You know conspiracy theories and everything but that couldnt be right because why would a princess come here. Sure you know there is that elena girl which I mean is an interesting story on it's own considering shes on the run and yet everyone knows shes here. It's amazing you know nothing else has happened. " melody rambled with a shrug. "But yeah so we saw this girl and my friend is super certain it's her and well now I can't help but looking around to see if shes around and long story short I'm pretty sure I saw her heading into townhall when I was walking here. Oh do you know how to get to town hall?" Melody offered trying to give her most innocent smile. @leanobeano

JASMINE

The royal advisor started to cross his arms within a few seconds of the girls rambling, and then that became a full on glare as Melody kept rambling. It was a genius move. JASMINE was utterly in awe of the girl as she hid behind a few of the lanterns. "Miss if you could quickly tell me the way to town hall. I don't care for any of your stories, just which way?" @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY smiled brighter at the mans glare but she wanted to act like she hadnt even noticed. She was just this really helpful girl.

"That's awfully rude. I really just wanted to help. I mean look out into this crowd. You're screaming into the air about a lost princess. And no one else came up to you. And you know I've been so much help that you should definitely let me know when you find her. I'll be here all night since it's the lantern festival and its such a beautiful night. My seven cousins will be here too. Plus my parents and my uncle. It's a big family event." Melody explained smiling brighter. "Oh yeah town hall. Okay so you have to go straight till you hit the tree with the wobbly branch then turn left onto the yellow bricks. Get to the end of the street and turn left. Walk alllll the way down and look for the big building there's also a wobbly stone infront of it so please be careful." Melody explained. @leanobeano

JASMINE

The advisor just turned and started in the direction the girl had suggested, determined to find the lost princess of Agrabah. And of course, the man had no patience at all for Melody's rambling. Once he was sufficiently out of sight, JASMINE popped up from her hiding place, moving immediately over to her date. "I can't believe...that was amazing Melody! I really...thank you. Thank you for doing that." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY almost immediately covered her mouth trying to hide her giggles. She was surprised too that she lasted that long but she got made when people tried to mess with people she cared about and jasmine fell within that now. "I cant believe that worked oh my gosh." Melody murmured still laughing. @leanobeano

JASMINE

"That was genius," JASMINE informed the girl, a smile lighting up her entire face as she made her way closer to her. "Really...I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me. That was...that was really impressive." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY blushed at the compliment dropping her hands letting the pink tinge be visible as she smiled at Jasmine, taking the other girl's hand. "I like to think I can protect the people I care about." Melody explained trying to focus on Jasmine's eyes and not letting her own drift down to the girl''s lips as her own heart pounded. "You're absolutely stunning when you smile like that." @leanobeano

JASMINE

"And it...doesn't bother you that I haven't explained?" JASMINE couldn't help but question, even as she gently squeezed Melody's hand. "I mean I...I appreciate it. I..." she could feel her own cheeks heat a little herself. She was so used to being the one to flirt and to throw the compliments, she was somehow caught off guard when it was reversed. "You're sweet. How did I get so lucky to meet a girl who was this sweet?" @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY shook her head stepping closer. "I know you have your reasons. You can tell me the story when you're ready." Melody doubted she was in danger and like she had said before she had done some research, there just wasn't a friend part of it because Melody didn't want to spill a secret that wasn't hers. Especially one she was guessing about. "But just so you know, it doesn't change anything for me." Melody offered leaning up trying to give Jasmine enough time to pull back if she wanted to pull back. But she was still running on the confidence that she had done that and she wanted to feel out how much she could get away with. If maybe she could kiss her. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE wasn't used to being the one caught off guard. But here she was, overwhelmed with how...patient Melody was with her. And just how...well how sweet. It didn't bother her that Jasmine hadn't shared everything yet. Why didn't it bother her? "Nothing at all?" She questioned, though apparently the answer was really clear as Melody leaned in, and a smile spread across Jasmine's face once again as she leaned in to meet Melody in the middle and kiss her gently. @Ashley

MELODY

It didn't change anything at all because MELODY had her own secrets. Secrets that one day she hoped to share with someone but couldn't. So she understood it in some regard. And really her biggest thing was that she wasn't putting the people she care about in danger. So she was okay, She was more than okay. Even with her heart beating out of her chest when Jasmine closed the distance and kissed her and Melody didn't hesitate to return it. "I was going to be the one to kiss you." Melody murmured gently with her eyes still closed almost hiding but not. @leanobeano

JASMINE

A giggle escaped JASMINE before she could keep it in. She couldn't help herself. "Oh alright then. If you want to kiss me go ahead." She closed her eyes and puckered her lips, a little teasingly, but well intentioned. What? She liked kissing Melody. If Melody wanted a go herself, why not? @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY giggled at the puckered lips but she didn't let that stop her. Nope. Melody set her hand on Jasmine's cheek tried to rein in her smile. And when that didn't work she brought Jasmine in for another kiss. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE's grin didn't really go away, especially not as Melody drew her in for a kiss. She kept her eyes closed, focusing on the feeling, reaching out so she could wrap an arm around Melody. "You sure have some moves Melody. I am more and more impressed." @Ashley

MELODY

MELODY giggled at that moving to hide her face in Jasmine's shoulder. "I'm not sure they can be called moves but I suppose I'll take the compliment, princess." Melody teased with a little raised eyebrow. @leanobeano

JASMINE

"Oh dear, now the cat's out of the metaphorical bag, you'll be calling me that any time huh?" She shook her head, though the fact that Melody hadn't left had JASMINE so awed she couldn't really complain. "I suppose I can give you a full introduction now hmm?" She grinned, leaning in just to plant a light kiss to Melody's lips again. "I'm Princess Jasmine Fatima Malva Bera Al-Saleh of Agrabah. It's lovely to kiss you." @Ashley

MELODY

"If I'm allowed to I think I'll make sure to use it." MELODY teased before she was left blinking at the many names. So Jasmine really was the princess of Agrabah. What a turn of events this was because Melody until this moment was still just guessing and making assumptions. "However you're only getting Princess Jasmine out of me. It'll take me a little longer to know all your names." Melody mused lifting her head from the other's shoulder. @leanobeano

JASMINE

"I suppose you are. I certainly won't stop you," JASMINE replied with a grin. It felt good to be able to say her full title again. And to have Melody be okay with it and the lie she'd given before then. Jasmine couldn't believe how insanely lucky she was. "Fine, I accept. Though I should think the Fatima one should be at least somewhat familiar," she remarked with a small smile, though she shook her head. "Call me whatever you want. I'm just glad you're not angry with me." @Ashley

MELODY

"Well yes Fatima is one that I am used to." MELODY mused shaking her head as she squeezed Jasmine's hand pulling them back to their abandoned lanterns. "Everyone has secrets and stories. Heaven knows I have some too. So I can be patient until you're okay to tell me everything. I don't ever want to push someone, you know?" Melody explained. "I can't be angry about you protecting yourself." She could just hope Jasmine wouldn't be mad one day if she found out. @leanobeano

JASMINE

JASMINE allowed herself to be drawn back to their lanterns, awed and pleased to be holding Melody's hand and be able to keep the relationship they'd had together. "I do know...but I...I also want to tell you about it. I do. Really. I want to be able to tell you about where I've come from." @Ashley

MELODY

"You can tell me tonight if you want?" MELODY offered, "We can ditch this and I dunno go somewhere quieter that he won't find you. Or we can continue with the lanterns tonight?" @leanobeano

JASMINE

"I...you know what, I think I'd really like that. Just the two of us? We could take our lanterns with us, launch them somewhere that no one will notice us," JASMINE suggested. "Make the night ours." @Ashley

MELODY

"Yeah I'm good with that." Picking up their supplies MELODY glanced around spotting her cousins off doing their own things. "As long as we avoid town hall we should be good." Melody wasn't sure what other place would be good. Without the forest, and with the lake being used. "Maybe the park?" @leanobeano

JASMINE

"The park would be a wonderful choice. Just like our first date," JASMINE reminded her, a bright smile on her face as she started away from the lake, still gripping onto Melody's hand. "If only I had all the picnic stuff again." @Ashley

MELODY

"It seems like I just want to unconsciously mimic it." MELODY mused with a shrug swinging her free arm back and forth, letting the lantern move and twist in her hand. "Sparkling cider, only this time right?" @leanobeano

JASMINE

"Ah you remembered. Yes. Sparkling cider is a good choice. Hmm....should we get something to toast to for tonight before we head to the park? Or is that unnecessary?" JASMINE questioned as they walked, already thinking about how she could make things nicer for Melody. She couldn't help it. It was the first time in a while she'd been able to be out on a date, and the first in her life as Princess Jasmine, most determined lesbian. @Ashley

MELODY

"Why not? Sparkling cider, lanterns, I'd say that's something to celebrate. Especially if by the end of this night I could be calling you my girlfriend?" Melody asked though she was scared to be the one to put a label on it. Except she didn't think either one of them were into anything but relationship. They weren't just play things to each other. @leanobeano

JASMINE

If anyone ever said Melody had no game, they were clearly idiots. Jasmine was finding herself wide eyed and stunned. She even had to stop for a minute to process just what the girl was saying. "You're serious? Okay...okay we need more than cider. We need to get....blankets and maybe a dessert so I can kiss my new girlfriend under the stars." @Ashley

MELODY

Of course she was serious? Melody didn't go around just kissing anyone. and she didn't want Jasmine off kissing anyone. The thought of it would break her heart. She thought Jasmine hadn't liked her at one point and it broke her heart so now she just needed to know where they stood. And apparently that meant Melody had a girlfriend.

"Then what are we doing standing here? Off to castle suites?" Melody laughed running alongside her girlfriend to the apartments. @leanobeano

JASMINE

Jasmine laughed right along with her, running back toward the apartments and completely forgetting all about the man who had come to find her. In this moment there was nothing and no one but Jasmine and Melody.

It didn't take long to get to the suites, and she paused by the stairs only so she could draw Melody in for a little kiss again. "Your floor or mine? Wait...I have the cider still." @Ashley

MELODY

Melody couldn't help the laugh when Jasmine kissed her again and wow her cheeks were starting to hurt. She even lifted her hand to press against her cheek.... then smacking herself in the cheek with the lantern.

"That didn't happen." Melody quickly stated hiding behind the lantern. "Yours is technically closer? Or you can get the cider and I can get the blankets at mine?" @leanobeano

JASMINE

A giggle escaped Jasmine despite herself. She felt like she was floating in a sense, like she could float away with happiness. This only solidified the surety that she could never in no sense of the word kiss a man like this. There was nothing like this feeling.

"I saw nothing," Jasmine replied with a laugh, glancing away with a grin. "Hmm...good idea. We part ways, meet back right here." She squeezed Melody's hand and reluctantly pulled away so she could hurry and grab cider and some glasses. The sooner she did it, the faster she'd be back with Melody and holding her hand. @Ashley

MELODY

Melody didn't want to take too long, that would be the worse thing now. She hurried up to her own floor tumbling inside grabbing a fluffy blanket bundling up the entire thing in her arms instead of folding it up perfectly like she probably should have. And somewhat precariously placed her lantern at the top of the bundle.

With a confirmation her door was locked again Melody all but ran back to the elevator tapping her foot until she was one floor lower and the doors opened to Jasmine's floor. This night didn't even feel real and right now Melody was sure unless she saw Jasmine's smile she would keep doubting it was real. @leanobeano

JASMINE

Jasmine raced to grab the cider and the glasses herself, her own lantern haphazardly in hand as well as she rushed back toward the elevator. She was just in time for the doors to swing open and for her to spot her girlfriend standing in it. Wow.

"You are so beautiful," Jasmine murmured, rushing in and clumsily pushing the button to get back to the ground floor. @Ashley

MELODY

There went Melody's cheeks again, grinning so brightly that it was hurting her cheeks again. She had a girlfriend. she had a girlfriend. Oh gosh there were going to be so much family that would have to know. And that worried her because what if Jasmine didn't want to be part of any of that.

"Not as beautiful as you." Melody whispered refusing to let that thought ruin their night. @leanobeano

JASMINE

"No, I'm sorry...but you see my new girlfriend is absolutely the prettiest girl in the world," Jasmine argued with a cheeky grin, drawing close again. It was a shame her hands were full, otherwise she'd take Melody's again. As it was, she'd settle for being close to her. @Ashley

#not your prize princess #//What I wanted it on Mel’s blog

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eorzeasntm · 6 years

Photo

Hi everyone! Last week our models battled to the death with the primals. Our intrepid Warriors of Light risked life and limb for some of the best battle shots we’ve seen in the history of the competition.

The ever present threat against Eorzea, primals are our primary foe. How are you keeping Eorzea (or Doma or Yanxia) safe from these menaces?

However, even though everyone did a great job this week (and gave the judges and the community absolute fits - the rankings were all over the place), only one model emerged from the pile of corpses with the best overall score by a mere third of a point:

Rymmrael Bhaldraelwyn

Congratulations! Not even Ramuh’s beard can stand up to your fierce display of paladin strength. Time for a shave and a haircut, primal!

The next round of ENTM Tumblr Cycle 10 will hopefully be posted sometime before midnight EST on Friday, October 12th - assuming Michael stays far, far away.

Please check below for feedback from our judges.

A note from Kat: Models, please know that if you have any questions or want clarification from a judge on a critique, you are welcome to DM them from the Discord channel. Often when the round is this excellent the decisions come down to tiny nit picks, so a suggestion for how a shot could have been improved is not always the same thing as a low vote in the ranks. You could be a judge’s favorite that week and they’ll still have something to say that could have made it even more amazing.

Judge Kusuh

Hey all! Just as a note: these critiques are being written on the road due to a major life move! These may be a bit shorter, but as always, feel free to reach out me with any clarifications!

Ni’ko: Colored marker is an *amazing* color choice for this picture! Everything about this picture adds to it in an amazing way: the dark sun in the back center drawing the shot together, the line connecting you and Ifrit, the ice shards adding sharp edges to the frame of the shot; everything adds something! Here’s my caution though: this picture walks that very thin line between enough and *too much*. While everything in a shot can have a purpose, there is such a thing as overloading a frame, even if you believe it’s all necessary! I want you to keep an eye on that in the coming weeks, making sure to really keep an editorial eye on what you do.

Cowbot: The deadly slice of Odin gives me some maaajor flashbacks to the DPS checks of that fight when it came out, so I’m glad you were able to catch it in a much more showy and epic light! I believe the cinema frame here was a good choice, it’s like the climax of a movie! Now, here’s something I’ve noticed in a few of your shots, including this one: you are a lalafell, and therefore you are shorter then most of your fellow models. This is going to produce unique challenges, mostly in terms of visibility. In this shot, while the look and effect is great, I’m having a hard time seeing you! For the future, I want you to try zooming in a lot more! See what you can get from a different perspective.

Ysildor: I very much appreciate the choice of color and use of the tools available to you in gpose, you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into what you need to do to make the shots as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Here’s what I’m noticing this week: the shot feels a little crowded to me. This mostly comes from the fact that while you are clearly engaged in combat with Odin, the fact that you two overlap on different planes makes me wonder exactly where you are looking and aiming your attacks. Whereas I commonly ask others to zoom in, I’d like to see what you can do with a wider shot in the weeks to come! Let’s see how you do with much more room to work with.

Judge Vederah

Azalea: Stylistically there's some pretty neat things happening here. I love how you put some thought into the glamour you wore for this particular shoot- helps your character fit in with the shot and helps with the narrative. I also like how both you and the primal are super imposed over one another. His might may be looming over you, but the ferocity in the characters expression shows where the true power lies. However, the picture is so over saturated with blue and green hues that you lose a large portion of the primal's shape and a lot of the details on the floor for that mechanic. Perhaps a different filter, or less direct lighting would've helped. Lily: I love how crisp and clear this image is- like almost to the point where it looks like a screenshot from a cut scene. How your character is positioned in relation to the primal makes it feel like they're actively engaged in battle. I also really like the contrast between your character's blue hued armor against the warmer toned backdrop and Ifrit. It's a really well composed shot- and the only thing I could point out as maybe something to change would be to scoot the shot a touch more to the left so it's more centered.

Rymm: I love the pink and deep blue tones of this shot- and how you matched your glamour to it. It's always important that your character fits into the settings. I also really like the angle of the shot and how it directs the eye over to Ramuh who is just being completely surrounded by that amazing lightning graphic. I think the only con to this image is that it's a little dark around the edges. So much so that it almost makes the image as a whole too muted. If the lighting was a touch brighter, those amazing colors would've popped even more- making this image mindblowingly good.

Judge M’Telihgo

Wren: I want to start by saying how much I absolutely adored your picture from last week. You were front and center and in the irrefutable focus of your picture. That picture was you and everyone knew it. Why? Partly you are in the center part of your picture, we always start there when looking at an image. You are the only thing that is blue. We can see your beautiful face, you should show it to us much more often, you are very pretty! I’m sorry Wren, I cannot say the same things for this week. It helps that you are the only thing in white, it really does so +1 for you. I’m kinda sad that I cannot see your face this week. I also have pink hair and thanks to a request by my bf, I am using the same hairstyle right now. I would love to see how your face looks with it too. A slightly different camera angle to focus on you a little more and show your face could be just what you need! Shiva commands much more of the area of this picture than you do. Neither one of you are facing the camera and that would help your image too. I can tell you are trying, and you do get credit from me. This next round is for a close up, please, let me see how awesome you look in that!!

Ona: Your picture also suffers from your face being obscured. Taken from the opposite side, much more of your face would be visible since the hairstyle is asymmetrical. I like the effect, it does look like you are fighting Garuda, you lined it up well. Unfortunately, it leaves you in a weird pose that I feel detracts from your image. I do think a different outfit may have helped you some too. You skin tone doesn’t pop against the blue background, it makes you blend a little bit and since your armor is light and has a low coverage it takes some focus away from you. I like the lighting on Garuda, it makes her look like she has some depth to her and that is also something that you lack because of the pose the action left you in. Again, it’s a nice pose and it works well for the action part, just not so much for the you part. Keep at it, I know you will get there.

Judge Rongi

Adam: This week you really used contrasting colors to your advantage. I love the colors in this shot! This pencil filter was a genius choice because not only does it make the background look fantastic, it also made you look like youre straight out of a comic book. You look amazing in this shot, but one of the hard things about taking screenshots with mobs is getting them to also look good. Garuda has a lot of appendages, and as such, if she isnt in the right position, she can become a confusing mess. If Garuda had looked like she does in Ona's shot in your shot, I think this picture would have been much stronger.

James: Normally I do not like these portrait style shots, but both you and Haila really pulled out some great shots with it. While you both pulled it off very well here, I think where you faltered in comparison is by not doing a back shot. In the shot you submitted it looks like you are summoning the Pheonix yourself, a lot like Azalea did as well, but I think it would have been stronger if you had been facing the Phoenix. Many models this week are facing away from the primals, but the way they are positioned makes them still seem engaged with them in battle. The Pheonix's wings are also cut off at the tips, which I dont think a horizontal shot would have fixed because then we couldn't have seen you either. I didnt rank you low, but I wanted to explain why I didn't rank you super high.

Nadede: Wow! This shot is amazing. I love the color contrast, the pose of both of you, the way you fit like a puzzle piece into the silhouette of Leviathan, everything. I feel like you went for something less flashy, and it totally paid off. I wish we could see more of a weapon, where your hand is being cut off at a strange place, but not focusing on that, only looking between you and Leviathan, i think this shot is great. Wonderful job.

Judge Kai

Chee: Good job with the setup of this image. I love that you’re dominant, and I can see you clearly! Also, you were very smart to wear lighter clothes, seeing that the ground and sky are much darker. It makes you pop without needing to force it. The lighting is also lovely, and I love how dramatic it looks on your face. Concept wise, I see what you were going for but it seems more like you’re getting ready to flee than actually face this menace. Also, the outfit you chose to wear, while great color-wise, is a bit off where it pops out with the knee. Unfortunately, SE didn’t map these outfits to fall naturally when turning and having such a pose, so it ends up just popping straight out and leaves my eye wondering what exactly your body is doing. Overall, love the lighting and I see what you were going for but I don’t think it quite got there. As for the outfit, kudos on picking a color that makes you stand out, but from the waist down it’s just not working for me.

Haila: First off I will say this… that is a beautiful shot, and I love that you made it a long shot and not a wide. It really gives you the height to show how massive this creature really is! That said, concept-wise I’m not sure if it comes off as facing a foe. It seems more like you’re summoning it, and you’re the for about to lay waste to a bunch of innocent people (which hey, I’m not against this because it’s awesome looking). Nice job on the lighting, and on picking an outfit that makes you pop. As for the back to the camera, I’ve always said I'm not fond of it unless it really adds something to the image, and I’m not sure if this really adds to it. Overall it’s an awesome picture, you pop and have nice lighting. Seeing Levi fly out of the water like that is amazing… but I’m just not sure it really follows the concept, as well as some of the others, did.

Lantis: This looks like a battle shot, and I love how you have yourself leaping into the air to meet your foe head-on. Concept wise, I’ll say you hit it pretty much dead on. I’ll also say that it was smart for you to use the glowing weapons and that arc of light under you to attract the eye. If you didn’t have those bright color to pull the eye to you, I don’t think this would have worked as well as it does. The image does come off very dark, and your clothes almost blend into the background without the help of the light around you. If you’d somehow made this image a bit lighter, or have worn something that popped a bit more I think it would have helped your character become more dominant in the image. Overall I think this is a great setup, and the concept is spot on, but the darkness of the image leaves you dependent on bright pops of color to attract the eye instead of your character.

#entm tumblr cycle 10 #ffxiv #entm

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diarrheaworldstarhiphop · 7 years

Photo

‘Blade Runner 2049 has a women problem,” cried the internet this weekend, as the critically praised sci-fi sequel hit cinemas. Tweets and blogs cited the fact that female characters were treated as sex objects, and that the narrative was almost entirely driven by men, including Ryan Gosling’s replicant-hunter K and his predecessor Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Outrage quickly spread, including from those who had not yet seen the film.

As someone who has, I’m not surprised. While I was transfixed by the film’s visual prowess, score, fascinating plot and fidelity to the original, I was troubled by the character of Joi (Ana de Armas) in particular. An operating system who is bought by K to act as a doting, doe-eyed housewife, she appears to him in hologram form as and when he dictates, wearing and saying whatever she thinks suits his mood. Understandably, Joi has been called “a sci-fi fanboy’s wet dream”. Her owner’s emotional demands dictate whether she is in sexy or demure mode (flashback to Arnold Schwarzenegger creating his dream girl in Total Recall). How are we supposed to admire a hero whose key relationship is with a woman of his own creation who will submit to his every demand and can be switched on and off as he pleases?

I was reminded of the highly problematic scene in Ridley Scott’s 1982 original, Blade Runner, in which Deckard strong-arms replicant Rachael (Sean Young) into kissing him. This scene was on my mind when I interviewed Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve, who said he was attracted to the script (written by two men) partly due to the many female characters. “It’s a movie that shows different facets of femininity,” he said. I was hopeful.

And, indeed, there are a number of characters. Robin Wright is terrific but underused as K’s slick, strong, black-clad boss, Lieutenant Joshi, and Sylvia Hoeks’s icy baddie Luv is great fun, but in thrall to her male boss (sinister replicant-creator Wallace, played by Jared Leto). Mackenzie Davis’s Mariette shows initial promise as a strong character who can give as good as she gets, but she is also a sex worker who is literally used as a puppet. Visually, sexualised images of women dominate the stunning futuristic cityscapes, from pirouetting ballerinas to giant statues of naked women in heels looming over K as he goes on his journey. Of course, one of the themes of Blade Runner 2049 is a world littered with artifice, from replicants to sexbots – but these mainly seem to cater to heterosexual males. A hint of a woman considering a “pleasure model” is brief and unexplored. Meanwhile Wright’s Joshi appears attracted to K, but she is not permitted to use him for her sexual pleasure. Where is her holographic lover, her Joi?

Tweeters have also declared that Blade Runner 2049 fails the Bechdel test, which requires a film to feature two named female characters talking to each other about something other than a man. Personally, I think Blade Runner 2049 could narrowly pass, but the point remains: the film revolves around its male heroes and their needs. And it is not just strong women who are under-represented; there are very few non-white characters. One of the few who does appear on screen is a sex worker who barely speaks – so it is little surprise that the film is being criticised for its lack of diversity.

Meanwhile, 2049’s defenders have said the film is set in a dystopian future – and that it is not our future, but the future of the Blade Runner universe, as set by the 1982 film based on Philip K Dick’s 1968 sci-fi novel. This much is true: so why not explore that world’s treatment of women, rather than have it as a decorative backdrop, huge breasts and ballet-dancing holograms included?

While some women are questioning whether or not they should see the new film, I would not suggest boycotting it for its depiction of women. That audiences today are alert to discussing depictions of female characters in film is progress in itself. But it is worth thinking about whether this is the future we want for women in film. I hope Blade Runner 2049 gets its own sequel: there is the raw material for a much more nuanced depiction of gender relations. And perhaps a woman could write or direct the next one, too.

>joi is a signifier of K’s and man’s obsession with artificial, vapid material delights. The purely fantasy driven, unrealistic expectation of women as companion.

>she is even introduced to the audience by emerging from the kitchen, literally, in a 1950s housewife outfit. That is no accident and serve a purpose in being performed within a dystopian landscape.

>this realization washes over him while looking at the massive, sexualized holographic advertisement of the Joi commercial product near the end of the film, bashing the realization over his head how foolish he was for being so endeared by a product explicitly made to cater to every one of this shallow desires.

Of course, one of the themes of Blade Runner 2049 is a world littered with artifice, from replicants to sexbots – but these mainly seem to cater to heterosexual males. A hint of a woman considering a “pleasure model” is brief and unexplored.

The author completely steps over the role of Joshi, who owns K the way K owns Joi. Joshi is also not immune from the impulse that robots are for personal and professional gain as she too projects her own loneliness and insecurity onto her property, the way K does to Joi.

All of this part of a broader feminist commentary prevalent throughout the movie of the mysticism of woman through female reproduction and the male rage over being unable to master everything about nature, as seen in Jared Leto’s Niander Wallace who OWNS everything, produces much with his face across it throughout the galaxy, yet is wrapped up in his rage over his inability to master female fecundity. The limits of his power. He slashes a newly produced female replicant on her belly, in sharp rage toward his impotence. He can build “women” and robots to serve him, but there’s still something even the most powerful man can not do. So by extension, and related to K’s relationship to Joi, woman can not be mastered, simulated or replicated by male supremacy. The male supremacy in this dystopia just yields artifice and shallow fantasies.

This much is true: so why not explore that world’s treatment of women, rather than have it as a decorative backdrop, huge breasts and ballet-dancing holograms included?

...

I hope Blade Runner 2049 gets its own sequel: there is the raw material for a much more nuanced depiction of gender relations.

omg, the nuance was IN THIS MOVIE THO. This author’s entire gripe is that the gender relations were TOO NUANCED!

Hell, the whole *SPOOOOOOILERS* twist at the end is that K is sooooo wrapped up in the fantasy of being the nascent male hero of this story that he is crushed to find out that no, he’s not, but rather it’s a woman. He’s merely an accessory to her ascent. An ascent that hints at a greater story than his, now that his is abruptly cut short. A cherry on top of a series of REALITY CHECKS to K’s assumed artificial male fantasies as he lays, dying, contemplating his newfound humanity as knowing he died for a cause greater than himself.

Human, and replicant destiny belongs to and requires women, not male aspiration.

The entire movie is produced in the trappings of K’s self-absorbed fantasies, so exploring “gender relations” the way the author wants would distract from and fuck the film up.

Considering 2049 was intended to set up a series of films, it’s entirely likely that future additions would indeed explore this. But now it’s unlikely, because it’s a box office failure, particularly because it’s reputation got dragged online for it’s sexist themes. By people who didnt see the movie, no less..

why cant these bbbbasic “feminist” media journos grasp metaphor and symbolism?

There’s alot of feminist critique to draw from this film, but people again get whipped up by social media and get lost in the surface depiction of sexism on screen without realizing there’s a purpose to that and a greater meaning to draw from it than the simple, stupid brainlet reading who is only concerned by whether or not the female representation is POSITIVE rather than having profundity or depth. Or about whether or not one woman talks to another woman about eggo waffles or something that doesnt involve a man at any point in the movie.

This is why we have stupid, fucking, vapid shallow protags like Rey from star wars, who face no adversity or really represent much else than female power fantasies.

im kinda pissed that 2049 is being passed off by because it fails to offer the same shallow fantasies found in other pandering, transparently cashgrab movies. but whatever, it’s cult following and appreciation will develop long after it falls out of theatres.

#blade runner #blade runner 2049 #critique of critique

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buzzfeedwheeze · 7 years

Text

The New Teacher - Shyan AU

CHAPTER 2

Shane watched as Andrew made his way through his second bowl of cereal with milk. Only kids like that, my ass! He was beaming. It just felt so right to sit by his son’s side and enjoy a nice breakfast before leaving for work. Unfortunately, the familiarity of it brought back memories that he wish would’ve stayed buried on the depths of his mind.

He and Sara used to make pancakes of the new characters of Disney that they had been working on at the studio and Andrew would happily munch at them after pointing out mistakes in anatomy or color. The first time he did it, they were so surprised that they thought they had hurt his feelings and perhaps shut down their child, but the next time they tried to subtly make him comment it worked out fine. It should’ve been expected, after all, he was their kid and art was always a big part of their lives so it obviously would attract little Andrew. Shane remembered when they had just adopted Andrew, they were trying to figure out how to make the small 8 year-old interact with them so Sara suggested painting palm trees’ leaves on the living room wall and Andrew sat on the floor and started to make small coconuts. Even though it was sort of painful to revisit the memories, he would always have a fond smile as the mental image of a smaller Andrew with his brows furrowed as he mixed the colors to get the perfect green popped in his mind.

He sighed.

There was no use trying to hold back those memories. Watching Andrew eating his cereal while simultaneously trying to tweet just reminded him other mornings. After Andrew’s second day in high school, he wouldn’t shut up during breakfast about the art class and how the other students loved his style and of course, it was when he met the transfer student from Malaysia, Steven Lim, who even asked to keep one of his drawings.

“Dad, are you in there?” Andrew was waving a hand in front of him. “Earth to dad!”

Shane gave him a tiny nod and went back to staring at his now cold pancakes and coffee. Andrew’s voice was weak when he asked. “Are you thinking about mom again? It’s just that you have that look…”

This time Shane actually made an effort and fought back the urge to hide his emotions from the world. “I… No. Not really. Not now.” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I wasn’t thinking about her per se and I’m definitely not in love with her anymore, kiddo. I know you might think that I am..”

“It’s not that dad…” Shane made a gesture to stop him.

“It’s just hard to sort of filter my memories. Most of my happy memories with or without you are full of your mom’s presence and it’s tough to get over the fact that I was the happiest when we were together, probably the happiest I’ll ever be. I don’t think I can find someone that will make me feel like that again.” Andrew was looking at him with a concerned expression. “No! It’s not that I am unhappy. I mean, I have you! Andrew, you are the one thing in life that matters, the one thing that makes me wake up in the morning and actually thank god that I’m alive. For you being the way that you are, I’ll forever be grateful. I still can’t believe you chose us, that you chose me.”

“Dad, cut the sentimental crap!” he shouted, but he was visibly taken aback by his dad’s declaration. “You’ll find someone better for you, someone that deserves you. You and mom were okay, but okay doesn’t mean right, you get it?”

“So…” Shane didn’t want to discuss this any further, so he did what he was good at. He changed the focus of the conversation and with a teasing smile playing on his lips he continued. “Are you and Steven right, right?”

“Ugh, you are insufferable!” he snapped as he got up and stormed off to his room, leaving a very amused Shane and his very dirty bowl to be cleaned. As Shane washed the bowl he allowed himself to wonder if maybe his son was right. What if there is someone waiting for me? Nah, that’s bullshit.

XxXxXxXxX

“Have a great day, kiddo!” Shane handed Andrew his backpack and leaned on the side of the car. “Remember to give that Bergara dude hell.”

Andrew rolled his eyes and managed to give his dad a nod before turning around and going in the direction of Steven, who waved at Shane with as much energy as puppy. He watched them holding hands and disappearing inside the school building. It was the perfect image to have in his mind before jumping inside his car and going back to his eight hour shift at the Disney Studio where he would be trying keep sanity as he worked on a new animation project. But life had other plans. As he was about to turn away he noticed a cool Jeep pulling over at the teacher’s parking lot. Shane gritted his teeth as he saw the small guy hopping off the car.

Begara noticed him and as he walked in the direction of the school staring at Shane the whole time in what was supposed to be a menacing way. The staring match didn’t last much since when Ryan was about to climb the stairs to the building he tripped on his own foot and fell. Shane’s laughed was the only thing heard on the area. The other man quickly got up and stuck his middle finger to Shane which would’ve been offensive if he wasn’t blushing like a small kid. Shane chuckled again when he heard the main door of school being slammed.

“What a lovely day.” he said between giggles.

When Shane arrived at the studio there was, indeed, a pile of things to be done, but he was on such a big mood that he actually started to whistle some Disney songs. He turned his computer on and started to work on the animation, trying to make everything in sync and all the transitions smooth to facilitate the job of the Keith, the dude responsible for checking his progress and corrected small details.

The morning passed really fast. So fast Shane didn’t notice it was time to have his lunch break and got startled when Eugene touched his shoulder.

“Jesus, Madej. It’s break time. Stop working.”

Shane got up from his chair and stretched his body, lazily. He pocketed his phone and wallet and was about to leave when he decided to go back and take his sketchbook too. Today he was feeling creative. He decided to go to the Subway near the studio where he wouldn’t have to socialize with his co-workers and where people wouldn’t be asking questions about his doodles.

The place was almost empty, there was only a family of tourists with their ridiculously big Mickey Mouse Ears hats and faces full of sunscreen. Shane ordered a sandwich and chose a more reserved booth. He settled the sketchbook on the table and picked his favorite pencil, which was really small and was completely dented from falls and nervous teeth biting into it.

He gave a tentative bite on the sandwich and moaned slightly as he tasted the unique artificial flavors that only a fast-food chain restaurant could have. No wonder everyone called him a raccoon, he’d consider almost any food delicious. Or at least edible.

Shane started to sketch and after eating half of the food and finishing the face he realized he had drawn the fucking crazy teacher. Ryan Bergara. He ripped the page off and crunched the paper. Why would he draw that guy? He decided to keep the drawing though. It was fine art. So he got the little ball of paper and placed it on his jacket’s pocket.

There was still some time left before he had to go back to work, so he decided to get a nice ice cream cone. Shane bought one with two flavors ,vanilla and cookie though, of Mr. Tinsley a cool older guy that used to work as a detective or something like that in the 70s. Since it wasn’t a hot day, but the sun wouldn’t help the case of his ice cream, he found a nice bench underneath a tree.

He got his phone out and began to browse through Instagram. Then he stopped at a new photo of Steven. In the photo Steven was wearing a tinfoil hat, which wasn’t something so unusual, but the caption of the picture was the problem.

“What the fuck!” Shane perked up on the bench and gripped the ice cream cone harder. “‘@ryanbergara lended his cool hat to me, best teacher ever :)’”

It was impossible to ignore the urge to click on the username. In fact, Shane didn’t even try to hold back. He was bombarded by a series of photos of a Mr. Bergara at Disney and Universal Studios, puppies, Lakers and mirror selfies. He sucked in a breath. If the dude wasn’t bat shit crazy he would totally be my type. His bisexual senses were tingling so he decided to close the app. Nope.

I wonder if he has a twitter account? Maybe I could fight him. Shane clicked on the blue icon on his screen and typed bergara and there it was a @ryansbergara. Shane had a devilish smile as he analised the profile. The fucking profile picture was a photo of him wearing a tinfoil hat and his header was a screenshot of the X-files opening. Not surprising at all but that made Shane itchy to annoy the guy. That was practically begging to receive some of the old skeptic treatment that his family perfect through the generations.

Shane Madej - @shalexandej 01:39 PM

@ryansbergara hey dude nice hat. going to teach the kids how to do one… oh wait you already did!

He watched as a notification pop-up appeared on his screen only a few minutes later.

Ryan Bergara - @ryansbergara 01:42 PM

@shalexandej ha ha ha very funny stalker, i didnt teach them that!! i talked about how it is useless and actually applied some scientific concepts [GIF]

Shane Madej - @shalexandej 01:43 PM

@ryansbergara THANK GOD YOU DID THAT but i’ll have you know that i instructed my kid to make your life hell

Ryan Bergara - @ryansbergara 01:45 PM

@shalexandej oh really? Cause he actually helped in class

Shane Madej - @shalexandej 01:45 PM

@ryansbergara [GIF] NOOOOOO NOT MY KID BERGARA YOU ARE A CULT LEADER

Ryan Bergara - @ryansbergara 01:46 PM

@shalexandej hahahahahhahahsahs maybe ;)

Ryan Bergara - @ryansbergara 01:46 PM

@shalexandej i have to go prepare for my next class, see ya stalker [GIF]

Shane was about to reply when he receiver another type of notification. Ryan had just followed him. Well Bergara, this might be your downfall. He clicked on the follow button and he unconsciously knew how big of mistake that decision was.

#fanfic #shyan fanfic #buzzfeed unsolved #buzzfeed worth it #shane madej #ryan bergara #steven lim #andrew ilnyckyj #mine #my fic

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codezeta-liveblog-blog · 6 years

Text

Bonds 1.6 - After coffee, want to grab some pizza?

Just a FYI, my cellphone flipped the fuck out when selecting the text, so it decided to show right in my face one thing I didnt want to see: I know now that by the ending of this chapter there will be nothing within something. I'm hoping it isnt something that is going to be built through the entire thing, and just a last time development. Sorry for that.

I paced. The Demesnes text in hand, I walked from one end of the living room to the other, then walked back.

Another trip back and forth, and I stopped by the window, using the edge of the book to push the curtain back. It was dusk outside, just past sunset, day two, and some of the locals had emerged.

If I didn’t know better, I might have thought the locals were trying to put pressure on me. Men and women, some children, simply staking out the perimeter of the fence. Some of them paced like I was doing, like tigers in their cell, while others were patient, smoking or holding phones to their ears. A number of the ‘children’ were standing on the short stone wall, hands wrapped around the metal curls and spikes of the railing, eyes on the house. Some talked, others were silent.

Most were normal enough I wouldn’t have looked twice. A handful weren’t. One little boy, separate from the others, kept scratching at his head, face, neck and arms, his fingers coming away black with his own blood, or so it appeared in the gloom. I could see the gouge marks, dark lines cut into his skin, he would turn away, and they would be gone the next time I got a chance to see. There was a woman with hair, hat and coat covering much of her face, but when I did get a glimpse, I saw only vague, black smudges where her eyes and mouth should be. She held a cigarette up near her face, but never inhaled from it. The others seemed rather intent on avoiding her, giving her a wide berth as she paced.

Gore doesn't do anything for me, put scratching/itchyness is somehow more creepy. Maybe it has to do with the feeling of helplessness. Wounds, blood, missing limbs, its somehow fine, maybe manageable or expected depending on the setting. But self inflicted madness-inducing itchyness? Something you can't get OUT of you? Thats what does it for me in the creepyness scale.

A car passed down the length of the road. I tried to use the headlights to get a better look at the things, but the headlights revealed a mostly empty sidewalk, no Others but a small group of the ‘children’ that had hopped down from the fence and were simply walking as a group, heads covered by hats and hoods, hardly worthy of a glance.

My eyes had to adjust from focusing on the headlights. The Others appeared from dark spots, and stepped out from behind the pillars that framed the gate.

I let the curtain drop, then resumed the pacing. I’d read the same page five or six times.

“You’re making me nervous,” Rose said, startling me. “You’ve been pacing the entire time I’ve been gone?”

Her hair was wet. She’d left to go shower, but she still wore the same clothes as before. Apparently she had running water, on her side. That was interesting, considering there wasn’t necessarily anything for the pipes to connect to.

“I’m nervous,” I said. “I ordered pizza, but I didn’t think they’d come crawling out of the woodwork like this. There’s a good ten or so out there.”

“Why did you order pizza?” she asked.

“Because I’m hungry?” I responded. “There’s nothing more than the most basic stuff in the kitchen, I’m going to go crazy or get sick living off flour tortillas, canned beans and tuna, and since I’ve got to figure out a way to keep myself supplied, I might as well start sooner than later.”

“Pizza isn’t supplies.”

“Pizza is a way of testing the waters,” I said. “Will anyone in this town do business with me? If I can’t order a pizza, I might have trouble getting groceries delivered. If I can’t get groceries delivered, then I need to find a reliable, safe way of going outside.”

“So you put a pizza guy in the line of fire?”

“There wasn’t a line of fire when I called,” I said. I looked outside again. “It’s hard to keep track of time. My sleep schedule’s all over the place, my eating schedule’s off track, and the days are short. It’s dangerous, and it’s going to fuck me up. Need to get back in the habit of sleeping at night and eating on time. As is, I didn’t figure it would get dark so soon, and I didn’t figure they’d appear like this.”

“I know,” she said. “Except I don’t even have the physical needs to gauge by, and it’s awfully dark in here.”

I peeked outside.

Two Others had joined the group. One was very talkative, engaging with the eyeless, mouthless woman who had the cigarette, even venturing into the four or five foot bubble of personal space around her that the rest seemed to be respecting.

I reached for the phone. Mind changed.

“Bell Pizza. What can I do you for?”

“I’d like to cancel my order,” I said.

“You’ve already paid for your order. The food is made and is on its way. We can’t provide a refund.”

“It’s fine. Keep the money. Just call back the delivery guy so he doesn’t waste his time.”

There was a pause.

“I’m sorry. We can’t refund your pizza, because we already prepared it. It should be there in ten minutes or less.”

He was feigning ignorance, with a touch of a bad accent, but he couldn’t hide the smugness.

“You’re being intentionally dense,” I said.

The guy on the other end hung up.

“Fuck,” I said.

# I'm having weird flashbacks of RE4. But every villager is out to get you psychologically and the bosses are staring at you from the window and you cant do shit about it. Really like the alien-ness (?) Of the situation here. Never read something like thia.

“So… now what?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I doubt he’ll give me a fair hearing if I call back. I don’t really know what to expect, here. Even reading up on the basics, it doesn’t get into much depth about this.”

Rose nodded, “Essentials and Famulus were more focused on Other-practitioner relationships than general Other-human relationships.”

I could see her fidgeting. I leaned forward. “Earlier, you said you were nervous. How does that work? You don’t breathe any harder, since you don’t breathe. Does your heartbeat pick up? Does your body flood with the stress hormones, making you fidget?”

“That’s a no on every count,” she said. I turned away from the window to look at her. She elaborated, “My body’s always the same. Stable, steady, there, but not doing anything except… I dunno. Maintaining appearances?”

“But you get nervous.”

“My brain gets nervous,” she said.

“I’m not sure that makes sense, but okay,” I replied. I looked down at the page I’d been rereading for the past twenty minutes, then tossed the book down onto the coffee table.

“You’re onto Demesnes,” she observed, craning her head to peer down. “Me too.”

“It’s a fitting thing to read up on, here,” I said. “Making your own sanctuary, while we have enemies gathering at the gates. It seems like a pretty simple ritual.”

“Deceptively simple,” Rose said.

“Yeah, deceptively simple,” I agreed. “You stake out the area, the magical equivalent of drawing out your borders and planting a flag, you say a few words, and you invite anyone, everyone and everything that objects to come and challenge you. Trial by combat, riddles, placating them with deals, whatever you agree on. The bigger the area you try to claim, the bigger the invitation you broadcast. They each get to confront you the once, and the ritual ends when there are no challengers left, or when a set amount of time passes. Claim a space the size of a closet, maybe get five to ten objections. Claim a house, get fifty.”

Man did I have this backwards from the reddit. I thought it was a safe spot and that wad it. I'm glad i didn't know the full details though!

“I’m thinking that’s one of the last things we want to do,” Rose said. “When we have a familiar, and when we have an implement, so we have some ability to fight.”

“Except,” I said, “It’s a bit of a catch-22, isn’t it? The demesne gives us a steady supply of power, with bigger spaces giving us more power. It’s a sanctuary, and a place where we can bend the rules in our favor. Right? So we need a tool or a familiar to lay claim to as big a space as we can pull off.”

“Yes.”

“But we can’t infuse our tool until we have some power to infuse it with,” I said. “Except…”

“That power would ideally come from the demesne,” Rose said.

I nodded, “Or the familiar, in terms of strength and shaping how the tool functions. And we can’t start talking with Others about bringing them on board as a familiar until we have some established power already.”

“Necessitating a tool and a claim to some land,” Rose finished for me. “Each of the three things requires the two others.”

I nodded. “Or it necessitates a compromise. We pick one front, we make it easy, like you suggested, go with the bare minimum. Do one thing badly, use the leverage we gain to do the next thing in a mediocre way, and then use the two things to do really well with the last ritual.”

My pacing resumed, though I had my hands free, and I could stick them in the pockets of my wool hoodie.

Seems like the sort of thing I would never start at any point. I'm too undecisive when it comes to these things haha. I wonder if theres really no way to turn this situation over. Maybe something at the reunion will happen to make people side with him? Althought that wouldnt fir what we know on how many enemies grandma Rose has accumulated over the years. What to do what to do...

“How do the others do it?” Rose asked. “The Behaims and the Duchamps?”

“They have backup, I imagine,” I said. “A mom and dad who are willing to sit in on a meeting with a familiar and vouch for them, or maybe even have a familiar arranged from early on or before the kid is born, things ready-made, a space set aside.”

“Magical trust fund kids,” Rose said.

“Basically,” I said.

“What about the North End Sorcerer?”

“What about him?”

“I take it you didn’t read the little black book from cover to cover? Look him up.”

I shuffled through the tomes to find where I’d put the book. “I was going to read it later, after the major four were done, before the council meeting.”

“You don’t need to make excuses to me,” Rose said. She had her own copy. “Um. Page thirty-two.”

I opened the tiny book.

Johannes Lillegard, believed to be an adopted name. Practitioner. The newest arrival in Jacob’s Bell as of August thirteenth, ‘ought-nine, he arrived at the council meeting of said date. Johannes appears no older than twenty-five, but all facts suggest he claimed his demesne six or more years ago, a region spanning all of Jacob’s Bell, west and north of the hospital as well as the entire expansion north of the bridge.

I paused in my reading there, to ask, “The bridge?”

“The highway,” Rose said. “It becomes a bridge where it passes over the marshland here.”

I pictured it, then stopped short. “Wait, the commercial area north of the highway? With the train station, the shops-”

“-The condos, the mall, the prefab houses, yes.”

“As his demesne? The book talks about it in the context of rooms, of houses at the most.”

Rose didn’t reply. When I glanced her way, she was nodding, a serious look joining the general exhaustion on her face.

“There’s a catch there,” I said. “A drawback.”

“Oh, right, you’re only partway through,” Rose said. “Demesnes are like trademarks. Periodically, people are going to test them. You need to respond, but you have the home court advantage. The law’s on your side. But if you claim something that broad, and if you can’t or don’t defend it when someone else puts one foot over the line, that weakens your stance. But he’s defending it.”

Look at this guy! How many dozens do you call to attention when you try to claim something that big? I imagined the constant contest for desmenes would be a thing, like a pokemon go gym sort of competition. But good to know you have the advantage at first. Must be scary to get called out for that, the person surely must think they have the upper hand to begin with then. Meaning that they must have information that you are not aware that they have.

“How?”

She pointed back at the little black book.

I read.

In conversation with Aimon Behaim and Sandra Duchamp, we mutually agreed that Johannes must have claimed the territory prior to the expansion appearing, though we’re unsure of when this might have been, for none of us to hear the claim or be able to respond to it, nor how he was able to do this at what might have been the age of thirteen or fourteen. Mara has declined to answer any questions, being more taciturn than her usual,

Johannes seems to bear harsh wounds, no doubt tying back to his ambitious claim, with no use of one eye, one hand and one leg, though the tissues appear undamaged. He bears a set of antique pipes as his implement, and has a Gatekeeper of the Seventh Ring (ref Astral Bodies: vol 3, and Prime Movers) as his familiar, named Faysal Anwar, which takes the form of a rather large Afghan Hound.

Note: Johannes has made his second appearance at council meetings, February sixth, year two thousand and ten. Occasion to expand my notes. Arrogant, and justified in it. Enigmatic. He spends almost all of his time within his demesne, stepping outside only to defend his claim and attend occasional meetings. This makes gathering information hard. Favors manipulation of space.

Note: Touching up all of my notes, for my soon-to-be heiress. He is a manipulator, content to bait people and lure them to their doom. Fitting, given the implement of choice. He safeguards his demesne by making it a fiefdom, with neighborhoods held by Others and a handful of lesser practitioners. Stay clear, this is a threat you do not need to face down.

I looked up at Rose. “He’s powerful, then.”

She said, “He doesn’t have a family. He had nothing given to him in advance, as far as we know. But he managed something.”

“Okay,” I said. “So there are obviously other options. Approached directly, the situation is filled with contradictions and obstacles, but maybe there’s an oblique answer, like Johannes found?”

So there was NO response. Even more intriguing than him just being powerful. He exploited something, found his loophole and only then became powerful. He is the king from the visions right? I’m pretty sure he is. Wasn’t the city twisted in his "kingdom" though? Hm. He was the one that seemed the most nice towards Blake in those visions. What are his motives then? Helping Blake, befriending him or just taking over enough so that he himself has access to the ‘literal’ nukes?

“Like what I was talking about with the witch hunters,” Rose said.

That again. I shook my head.

“You’re refusing my ideas too fast,” she said, and the emotion in her voice caught me off guard. She was irritated, upset. “Have you even read up on witch hunting, Blake?”

“No,” I said. “Have you?”

“I can’t. I need you to rotate the mirror in the study. Damn it, listen, there are things we can learn to do that don’t rely on familiar, implement or demesne. Like Laird’s shamanism.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m very on board with that.”

“But you aren’t on board with getting the protections witch hunters have? If anything’s going to get us killed, it’s a knee-jerk reactions and making stupid assumptions.”

“It’s not that I don’t like the idea of protection,” I said. “But when someone says ‘witch hunter’, it makes me think of hunting things. Fighting, instead of defense. And I think that any of those protections we might use as practitioners are going to be found in books for practitioners. It’s hard enough without overcomplicating it, sifting through all the stuff we can’t use for some tidbits we could find elsewhere. Can we compromise? Maybe focus on getting this wizardry crap down, and we’ll look at the witch huntery stuff later, as the side project it is?”

Thats the problem right there isnt it? You cant go on the defensive in this situation, Blake is still holding out to some hope. He is the outside element being thrown into a volatile situation. I already see the escalation coming from miles away.

When I looked at Rose, she was frowning, eyebrows knit. tapping her hand on some surface in front of her.

We were similar in other ways. Prone to anger. But something told me that Rose wasn’t one to actually show or exercise that anger.

Something to watch for, if she was bottling up her stress. What outlets did she have to vent it, and how would she react if she couldn’t?

“Fine,” she said, in that way that girls were so very good at. She took a deep breath, then sighed. Purely for effect, I imagined. Calmer, she said, “We shelve that idea. We can use trickery, deception, manipulation, to get our foot in the door, get one of the three major things we need.”

“Agreed,” I said. “Harder than it sounds, because Others are naturally deceptive and are probably looking out for those tricks.”

“What else? We could try marshaling forces, like he is. We need a good rapport with Others to figure out who we might pick for a familiar, right?”

“There’s a problem with that,” I said. I reached for the mirror, then stopped. “May I?”

“Yes.”

I lifted the mirror from where I’d hooked it onto the bookcase, then carried it to the window, pushing the curtains apart. I set the bottom end of the mirror on the windowsill.

There were five more Others than before. All clustered around the fence. The rest were still there. Waiting.

Rose was turned away from me, so I couldn’t see her, and she was silent, leaving me to stand there, presenting our situation.

“That’s the issue, right now. That’s the biggest complication we’re facing with the rituals, with life in general. Someone’s done the equivalent of putting a price out on our head, or they said that the usual rules for going after someone in an inhabited area are on hold, for me, or for us,” I said, my voice low. “We can’t conduct any rituals, because those guys are waiting to fuck us up.”

“That-” Rose started.

Nooo dont get interrupted. I need that knowledge. She recognized someone or something didnt she? I love how her psychology and just how she works in general is being this build-up mystery that is probably going to blow up in my face when she suddenly vanishes forever out of nowhere in a critical momment or something.

She stopped short as a car appeared, parking at the far end of the street, a sign perched on top.

This time, seeing the vehicle approach, I could see how the Others moved out of the way of the headlights. Stepping literally into shadows, or stepping to a position where they were out of sight. In the latter case, it looked like they were stepping out of my field of view, to where the fence or columns on either side of the gate were blocking my view, but I felt like they were doing it for everyone that might be looking. Finding a universal blind spot.

A guy stepped out of the car, holding the insulated bag with the pizza inside. He crossed the street, and approached the gate.

“Stop him, Blake,” Rose said.

“I want to, but how?”

“I don’t know. Shout?”

I strode to the front door, hauled it open, and bellowed, “Hey!”

Others appeared from the shadows by the gate, a ‘child’ with his back to the stone column, glancing my way. Further down the street, I could see the faceless woman with the cigarette appear behind the delivery guy.

He didn’t stop walking. When he shouted back, I couldn’t make out the words.

“Stop! I don’t want it! Go back to the car!” I hollered.

Again, I couldn’t make out his reply.

I watched as the Others closed in.

I never thought I'd read a scary pizza delivery before.

The ‘little boy’ who’d been scratching himself walked down the street, so short I could barely make him out over the stone wall which bordered the property.

He approached the delivery man head on, not moving out of the way. When it looked like they might collide, the ‘boy’ hopped up onto the short stone wall. His hand around the man’s wrist.

A moment later, so fast I couldn’t see it, the boy slammed the delivery guy’s hand down on the railing. The man screamed, dropping the pizza, hand impaled on the spiked railing that ran along the top of the short wall. He tried to pull it free, but the ‘boy’ still had a grip on his wrist.

“Hey!” I shouted. I stepped out onto the porch.

NO DONT

A girl hopped up, using the man’s knee as a foothold, grabbing the delivery man by the jaw. She was more monkey than child as she swung up onto the wall. The momentum of the swing brought his head down and forward, driving it into the top of the railing.

I could hear the sound it made on impact, which said a lot, considering how I hadn’t been able to hear his words. There was no saying how much was the upper row of teeth breaking on impact with the railing, or the sound of the jaw breaking as it was wrenched down with a sudden weight of the not-little-girl.

The girl let go, walking along the top of the railing, her arms extended to either side, pigtails swinging, the grin the only part of her I could make out beneath the winter clothes, too wide, filled with very white teeth that didn’t match each other.

I could hear his continued screams, now more strangled than they’d been.

I felt cold, paralyzed. Had I just killed a man, simply by inviting him here?

The faceless woman caught up to him. Her free hand reached into the back of his head, and I could make out the fingers reaching out the front, moving just beneath the skin, closing together into a fist over one of his eyes. She moved her hand, leaving the skin bound shut in a knot of flesh, and she closed the other eye in the same manner.

Another movement, nearer the mouth and throat, and the screams were cut off.

Knitting, molding his flesh, almost casually.

My concern was no longer that I’d killed the man. My concern was that he might live.

“Blake!” Rose’s voice, from the living room. “You have to help him!”

No he absolutely does not. Ge the fuck back inside. Dont be a hero. Call the police????(actually maybe don’t???). I mean, Timecop cant be happy his turf is being messed with by people he has not assingned.

I took a step forward, then stopped as the faceless woman continued her work. Her fingers wriggled and crawled across the man’s scalp, just beneath his skin, burying his hair, reaching down to cover his ears. Trapping him in his own skin, so his own flesh was a hood over his face.

“Blake!”

I thought back to one idle thought I’d had in the past hours.

The house was a sanctuary against Other and practitioner both.

I glanced around me, then very carefully took a step back through the door, past the threshold and into the house.

Laird had come to the front door.

“He’s dying!”

There were rules. I couldn’t know which ones still held, here, which ones the locals had called off, while I was a problem. But there were rules.

I remained where I was, watching.

She held the cigarette aloft, poised as if she might take a puff at any moment, while her other hand pulled free, then plunged into his chest cavity.

The muffled grunts and violent jerks he made in response were worse than the screams.

The talkative one kept chattering, nonstop, the ‘children’ making little sounds of amusement, laughing and cooing. The others who’d joined in seemed content to watch, standing silently on the fringes.

I watched a car appear, traveling down the street from the opposite direction the delivery guy had come. The talkative one practically leaped, taking hold of the faceless woman. His momentum turned her around, and he leaned forward, simultaneously leaning her back, so they were pressed together, their bodies covering their victim. I could see the talkative one’s face stop an inch from the smudged blur of hers.

The car passed, the headlights illuminating what the people in the car would see as two embraced lovers, kissing at the side of the street. The remainder were hidden. I watched as the car reached the end of the road, stopping at a stop sign.

“Blake, salt is a purifying material, cleansing. It can work against certain Others,” Rose said. “There’s a ton in the study, if you can’t find any in the kitchen. Go and throw it at them!”

I didn’t move.

“Blake! Please!” She sounded desperate, now.

Make a salt gun. Slingshot the salt. Do not get close. Please Rose stop being so emotional. I do want to know of Blake has a plan, its looking increasingly like he has a plan. Is this deceitful? Not actually happening? The pizza guy over the phone seemed amused by the possibility of this happebing. Maybe its just to fuck with his head and its all going to be reversed soon, memories of the pain and all for the poor delivery guy. That would make much more contextual sense.

The car turned and disappeared out of sight. The two Others broke apart, and the faceless woman clawed at the talkative one. Vicious, angry, almost feral. He gave her only laughs in response, as he ducked out of the way.

The faceless woman gave up and turned back to her victim. I could see where she’d reached through his chest to grip the railing, fixing him to the metal.

Rose was screaming, now. “Damn you, Blake! Damn you! God! Fuck!”

She hit the mirror.

The noise Rose was making seemed to get attention. The talkative one looked up at me.

I slowly shook my head. I felt physically ill, all expression and utterances choked from me by the feeling of my heart in my throat.

But there was no fucking way I was going out there.

The talkative one said something to the others.

I saw the delivery guy lurch, tearing free in a mess of blood and ripped skin. His dislocated jaw hung down his teeth a bloody ruin.

He laughed, and it wasn’t a human sound.

When he joined the ‘children’ in cavorting about, I allowed myself to believe it. He wasn’t human. He had never been.

An Other, joining the faceless woman in some psychological warfare.

I could hear them laughing, in the two or so seconds it took me to slam the door.

“It was a trick?” Rose asked, as I crossed the room to where I’d left the mirror in the window. “They-”

I saw a movement immediately before Rose shrieked. I grabbed the mirror, pulling it away from the window.

The little ‘girl’ with the toothy mouth and the pigtails peeking out from a hat that hid her eyes, hair and ears had appeared just outside the window. She now scratched at the glass with long fingernails.

“They wanted me outside,” I said. “The house is a sanctuary, the property isn’t. Staying behind the railing like they were, it was meant to mislead us. I might have fallen for it, if Laird hadn’t come all the way to the front door.”

“They’re clever.”

“The book warned us they were.”

“How sure were you?” she asked. “That he wasn’t human?”

I didn’t answer. Rose was staring at me, and I avoided her gaze.

Others were scratching and tapping on windows, now. I heard a scrabbling, as if something was on the porch overhang.

“God,” Rose said.

“This is what Molly was dealing with,” I said, quiet. My heart was still pounding, my mouth so dry I needed to try three times before I could speak again, but the fear and helplessness were disappearing. I clenched my fist. “All on her lonesome. Hearing things just outside the house, all night. Nowhere good to go for help.”

“We’re not in a great place either,” Rose said.

“No. But we have each other,” I said. “You had my back last night, with Padraic. I might not have made it home in one piece without that. Thank you, by the way, if I haven’t already said.”

“You have, twice, but it’s okay. We’re figuring this out.”

I nodded. My thoughts were going a mile a minute, but I had trouble saying just what the destinations were.

“What are you thinking?” Rose asked.

“I’m thinking…” I said, trying to sum it up. “I think we’re almost ready.”

“Ready?”

“We’ve seen what kind of games the practitioners will play. We’ve seen how the Others function, in part. We have a sense of what we need to accomplish, and an abstract sense of how. And maybe it helps a little that I’m a bit scared and a lot angry.”

“You want to awaken,” she said.

I nodded. “Before the council meeting tomorrow. Getting a familiar, the tool, and the demesne is something that can wait.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I think we should. You want to do it now, or do you need to eat first?”

“Two things, first,” I said. “Eating isn’t one of them.”

I dialed the pizza place again.

“Bell Pizza, what can I do you for?”

“Hi-”

“No,” he said. “Not doing business with you.”

“It’s about the pizza guy.”

“We never sent anyone. I asked a driver if he wanted to go, he said he wasn’t delivering to a haunted house.”

The irony being this house was maybe the least haunted locale in Jacob’s Bell.

“I say it isn’t haunted, but it’s owned by you fucks, isn’t it?”

“One of us,” I replied.

“You’re Assholes, all of you, holding all the rest of us back. You know my brother bought a place here, because this place was supposed to grow? Except you’re not selling, and it’s losing value every year, needing more repairs. You-”

These townies are both assholes and fucking stupid. You dont invest in something that is not 100% sure and then blame other people on it. Seriously, goddamn. You were a shit investor, get over it. "How could that rich fanily not sell their mansion, that money was MINE! :(" fuck off. The way these many people are interested in it, it would just end up being communism and everyone getting just a crumb of the pie.

“I just wanted to check the pizza guy wasn’t going to show,” I said, but he was talking over me.

“-off on the power, I think, bullies. Knowing you’re driving the rest of us into ruin. You want a fucking pizza?”

“I changed my mind a while ago, remember?”

“Fuck you. Fuck yourself! I already talked to the other pizza place. Don’t expect a thing, until you’ve sold that place. Fuck you.”

“Fine,” I said. “It’s just pizza.”

But he’d already hung up.

It’s just pizza, I told myself.

“Fuck,” I said, as my annoyance bubbled to the surface.

“You can’t be surprised. I mean, you knew people hated you here.”

“The woman at the coffee place was surprisingly respectful of the idea that I might be in mourning,” I said.

“Being a decent person and hating our guts isn’t mutually exclusive,” Rose said.

“Fuck,” I said again, still annoyed.

“It can’t be that big a deal, compared to what just happened outside.”

“You took a shower just a bit ago,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry to ask, but do you even get dirty, on that side?”

“No,” she said. “Pretty sure I don’t. Some dust, but I don’t sweat.”

“I’m guessing you needed to shower to enjoy a mundane comfort,” I said. “Feel a bit more human.”

“Alright,” Rose said. “Point taken. Sorry about your pizza.”

I shrugged.

“I could do with more human comforts myself,” she said.

I nodded, “Something to figure out. I’ll help any way I can. But first-”

“Awakening,” Rose said.

I nodded. “Meet you in the study.”

I took the stairs two at a time.

I’d opened the second secret door on the second floor, which made for a quicker arrival at the lower floor. The room was far darker without the sunlight from above.

I twisted the knobs of the two lamps that sat on and beside the desk, respectively. When the room was still too dark around the edges, I lit the oil lamps at the edges. Each lamp illuminated a slice of the bookcases, cabinets or shelves to either side of them. Where the lettering on books had been done in foil or a reflective material, the lamplight caught it, highlighting the scripts in a soft orange-yellow, while the books themselves remained dark.

By the time I’d finished, Rose had lit up the room on her side. The light from behind her made the edges of her clothes and hair glow.

She held a wrought-iron compass, with a spike in one end and chalk embedded in the other. I watched as she stabbed the floor, then walked in a circle, using the other arm to draw the wide circle in chalk.

She had the curved ruler that she used to measure the distance, then erased a spot. She was reaching for the compass again when she looked at me.

As the ins and outs of her existance remain a mystery, I didnt think of the possivility of her doing the ritual too. Or needing to do it in any way. Maybe we can get twice the magic power in one person, but I somehow doubt it. I think what counts for Blake counts for Rose.

“Blake?”

“You’re doing the ritual too?”

“If I can,” she said. “Aren’t you starting?”

“I said there were two things I needed to do first,” I said.

“Phoning the pizza place and…”

I crossed the room, lifting a book free of a shelf, then walked back into Rose’s field of view.

“No, Blake.”

I hefted the book. Diabolatry, R.D.T. The black cover was surprisingly flexible and soft, the lettering on the spine and cover were done in gold, catching the lamplight.

“No,” she said again, as if saying it over and over again with increasing intensity might drive it into my head.

“What was it you said?” I asked. “Stupid knee-jerk assumptions are going to get us killed?”

“I’m all for stupid knee-jerk assumptions when we’re dealing with that. Laird said they were the mystical equivalent of nuclear missiles.”

“I’m not proposing we use them. But I want to know what we’re dealing with.”

“Blake. You know that moment in the horror movies, where you’re screaming at the actors? ‘Don’t go up the stairs’, ‘don’t touch the glowing skull’? Don’t read the book.”

Would reading it be that destructive? Or does it only hold such implications of power that it draws you too much into it. Have you already read the book Rose?

I frowned.

“What are you even thinking?”

“That the things outside were horrifying, the faceless woman, the pseudo-faerie we ran into. So… why are these things so much worse? What makes them ‘nuclear’? We’re walking into that meeting, and I can’t help but think that everyone there is going to know exactly what’s going on here, and we’re going to be in the dark. We can’t afford to look weak or stupid.”

“We are weak and stupid,” Rose said. “We’re untrained, ignorant, out of the loop, and we don’t have any of the good stuff that practitioners bring to the table. No tools, no familiars, no demesnes, no tricks or any of that.

“We can’t afford to let on how badly off we are. Having one tidbit of info we can allude to, to scare the pants off them if we need it-”

“-Is liable to get us killed,” Rose finished for me. “I get it, wanting to know just what we’re sitting on, but handling the dangerous goods is not the way to find out.”

I hefted the book, feeling its weight.

“Come on,” she said, lowering her voice to be gentler, “I compromised earlier. Can you do the same?”

“Damn it,” I said.

“Is that a ‘yes’ damn it or a ‘no’ damn it?”

“Yes,” I said.

I moved to put the book on the bookshelf. A flap of paper caught on the shelf, keeping me from sliding it into place.

When I pulled the book back, the paper dropped. Fragments of dry wax and a small key danced across the floor.

Folded into thirds, it had been sealed into an envelope of sorts by wax. The key had apparently been melted into the wax, only to be freed by the impact.

“Leave it,” Rose said. “Nothing good comes of that. Sweep it under the desk, ignore it. Please?”

“I would,” I said, “But wax makes a seal, and that seal just broke.”

“That’s reaching,” Rose said.

“Okay, maybe,” I said. “But tell me you can’t imagine a drawing of something coming to life and crawling free of that page.”

“Now you’re being manipulative,” Rose said, “Playing to my paranoia.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

With the way things work in figurative ways and meanings, yes, that is very plausible, but also what a nice little fuck-up we have stumbled on.

“Yes, I can imagine it. Yes, are you happy?”

I wasn’t. I picked up the page. On the backside, there were only two words.

My heiress.

I turned it around.

My heiress,

If you’ve come this far, there must be a pressing need. You’ve been driven into a corner, or the situation is otherwise dire. I imagine time may well be paramount. Remember that haste makes waste, and you must step with utmost care from this point on.

I’ve left you something, or perhaps it is more correct to say I’ve left you someone. I refer to him as Barbatorem, making a small joke, as I tend to do, but he is an older one, bearing some status and a few stories from years past, with no name of any meaning that has survived the passage of time. You should be able to find those stories and notes on that status in Dark Names, p. 38.

You’ll find him waiting in the tower room, which you will need the key to enter. Staying outside the circle is first in your list of things to keep in mind, which I list here because there are no better places to put the warning. I should hope such obvious things don’t need to be stated.

Do we have a demon in the attic? I think we have a demon in th attic.

Cast aside all notion of manners. Do not greet him, do not ever say please or thank him. Do not ask him if he would or could do something. Give him no food or succor. There are older meanings in these things and they will either free him or give him power over you. Sometimes it is very little power, and sometimes it is all the power he needs to achieve his ends.

Put aside all metal and reflective things before entering the tower room, and ensure the space remains dark. He exists in a more abstract capacity, whatever physical forms he takes, and if his image is cast in a surface, he will exist in that surface, allowing him to step free of that surface and the confines of the circle. For these same reasons, do not ever look directly at him, even for a moment, lest he be reflected in your eyes. Rest assured, he will not ever step free once he dwells there.

So, no Rose. Cool. But also very cool concept. Having a demon in your eyes doesn't sound pleasing. Was Grandma so rude because she got too used to interacting to being like this? I think thats far-fetched, but a possible theory

He perceives the passage of time differently than we do. He’ll be content to sit in the circle I drew out until the sun grows cold. For him, the conversation is ongoing, and you’ll need to see the notes on his page in Dark Names so you can continue from where I, and each member of our line, left off. Failure to do so may confuse or irritate him. In any case, you can come and go, and he’ll see no difference in it. He does not speak, which led me to use the shorthand for gestures you’ll find on the final page of his entry. Please maintain those notes consistently, for those who come after you.

So, wait, he cant speak, so you use gestures, but you also cant look at him? I'm thinking that I'm missing something.

If you intend to deal with him, use one of the templates outlined in Dark Contracts, which I left to the right of the desk. Page 15, 17, 29 and 77 are good places to look, if you find yourself in a hurry. Do not improvise, for words must be chosen with utmost care. The final third of the book has recommended terminology with examples, which you can insert into the templates as needed. Do not trust Mr. Beasley or his firm for assistance. They are, quite naturally, unreliable on this front.

Failing all else, keep your eyes on the painted circle, stay silent, and keep to the contracts found in my books. You can consult my texts if you have any further questions. I regret that I am unable to assist you here,

R.D.T.

“What is it?” Rose asked. “The look on your face scares me.”

The look on my face? I touched my face.

“You look like someone just died.”

“No,” I said. “No.”

I moved to put the letter down on the desk, and it slid off. I picked it up again, tried to put it on the desk, and the corner of the paper caught, bouncing it out of my hand and back onto the floor.

On the third attempt, I turned it over, examining it under the light. Sky blue ink on white, barely visible, outlining a script that was reminiscent of the rune that Laird had drawn in sugar.

Holding it firmly in both hands, I set it down on the table, pressing it down in place. It stayed.

A moment later, as I turned to make sure I’d put the book away properly, I generated a brush of air that sent the letter to the floor again.

Once disturbed, apparently, it was insistent on staying disturbed.

Experimentally, I tore it, a little tear to cross the sky blue symbols. When I put it down this time, it stayed down.

“You’re scaring me, Blake.”

“She left something behind,” I said.

“Something?”

“Something Other. Fitting to her particular specialty. It’s upstairs.”

“No.” Seeing Rose, I had a sense of how I probably looked.

“I need to check,” I said.

There was no argument this time. Chances were good she was too stunned to say anything.

The black-painted key in hand, I made my way up the ladder, out the door to the top floor, and then up the staircase to the tower room.

I checked everything, then pulled off my sweatshirt, in case the tab on the zipper counted as reflective. I swept my hands over my entire body to double-check.

The key clicked in the lock. I let the door swing open. When I moved my eyes, I did so with care, keeping to the periphery of the room, then inching closer.

The round window jutted out to my right, with a cushioned bench beneath for sitting on. Once upon a time, it would have been a good spot for reading. Now, it was shuttered and locked, with old books stacked on the bench like bricks. A table sat to my left, stacked with papers that were securely weighed down.

The floor… I saw the circle, painted in white. ‘Circle’ was perhaps an understatement, given the concentric circles and lines that sprawled across the floor, burdened with embellishment, scripts and geometric shapes, as well as other smaller circles hosting more of the same.

It didn’t take long for my eyes to see it.

A pair of shears, no doubt fallen from the table, impaled a line in the innermost circle of the diagram on the floor.

Nothing stood within.

You could have asked me to theorize, but I would NOT have guessed that the empty thing by the end was to be a summoning circle. Are the shears the problem? Interrupting the symbol? Doesnt it count as reflective? Do we have a demon locked in a useless household object, that would be pretty hilarious.

I’m thankful that this wasn’t build up then, it really was a last time sort of deal. I’m starting to doubt that the meeting will be had in this Arc, unless this is one of the long ones. Maybe two, three more chapters? I just don’t expect it to be resolved in a single chapter and it would be good to end the Arc with it. I still have yet to discover if this story has Interludes, since I don’t know much about Twig in no way whatsoever and how it tells its story. Maybe the Interlude will be happening in the meeting? Getting one more of those famous “alien” perspectives Wildbow is so good at doing, from an Other, seeing everything from its eyes would be really good to have this early on, for perspective. Seeing how they think. But maybe confusing if overdone. Someone who is FRIENDS with Others or who already knows how they work might be best. Maybe the girl with the Other friend with the big smile. My speculation is that the people in the meeting will all gang up on Blake and it’ll be overwhelming, but one of two characters will show no interest in it, or feign it very well. Someone will start a conflict that will overwhelm the rest of the conversation and just unbalance everything, for our character’s luck.

NEXT TIME: I intended to post this last week, but sleep schedules, finishing up some university day-job before christmas plus getting further on an Internship selection process I REALLY didn’t expect to get further on got in the way. Then came festivities and you know the rest. I’ll be going on a trip tomorrow, but I felt that I HAD to squeeze this in somewhere. I’ll be back around the 8th, since the process will be back by then. I have NO IDEA what they’ll have me do and how I’ll manage my time then. But I’ll leave this note here for you and for myself to remind all of you: When I figure out whatever battery of tasks these maniacs will have me do in the middle of my vacation, I will schedule my next liveblog. I’ll be doing as always and bringing with me the next chapter (Bonds 1.7) with me on my cellphone, doing notes as I read it, which will be posted as soon as I either finish it or have internet (I’ll be in the middle of the woods, if everything goes right, from the 29th to the 5th). I hope you all had a VERY demon-free Christmas or any other religious or comercial festivities you partake in, and that you have the gayest new year. See you all in 2018!!!

#CodeZeta liveblogs #pact #PactArc1 #Pact1.6

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kyvir · 7 years

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Hello Tyy! Thoroughly enjoy your work on ff, so I have a request! I'd like a canonverse night change on the night Sasuke gave Naruto his message for Sakura and have him go home instead. If you'd be so kind as to write the reunion that'd be amazing! Thanks!

Thanks so much for the request! I love and enjoy your work as well, Blu.

I hope you enjoy Sasuke’s decision to drop by his home… If only for the night.

The Brief Reunion-

Rating: M

Though it may have been a clone, Sasuke found himself slightly bothered by having to meet Naruto. He’d been waiting a while and it annoyed him because he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. It had been a while since they’d met and though he had to meet him now for some information, it was hard for him to do so.

Naruto reminded him of home. Reminded him of his family. His wife and daughter, who he never got to see.Actually, he thought of them on a daily basis and that wasn’t the hard part, no he enjoyed thinking of them. But, when he thought of being so close to them, and yet so far away… it hurt.

Once Naruto finally showed up and called out to him, Sasuke turned to look at him.

“You’re late.”

Naruto annoying tried to explain himself and even took the time to complain a bit. Typical of him, but Sasuke wasn’t interested on wasting his time on such blabber.

“I don’t even know my way back home now, damn it!” He whined. “Where are we anyway?”

“Don’t ask me.” Sasuke muttered and then went to change the subject quickly. “So, where’s the scroll?”

Naruto seemed taken aback and somewhat annoyed by Sasuke’s eagerness, but he handed the scroll on over nonetheless.

Things weren’t looking good. It seemed that no matter how hard they tried to maintain peace, there was always something to worry about. Sasuke wanted to finish his mission, to get rid of these threats and know that his family, his home, was safe.

After discussing a bit of the scrolls contents with Naruto, Sasuke stood, feeling confident that this new information would help him a great deal. Though he’d never expected Danzo to have any information on Kaguya, he was happy to have any information he could. Pretty soon, this would all be over.

“I didn’t get it at all.” Naruto admitted. That didn’t surprise Sasuke, and this wasn’t Naruto’s mission, it was his.

“But with this,” Sasuke said as he got to his feet. “I should be able to get closer to the Time-Space where Kaguya existed.”

“Hey, you’re leaving already?” Naruto asked with disappointment. “What’s wrong with coming back to the village for a while?”

Sasuke turned to Naruto, his brows knitted together. Naruto knew his reasons for keeping a distance well enough, and he didn’t take too lightly to Naruto’s suggestion, even if he did mean no harm.

“Naruto…” He chided him before looking away, his mind going to his wife. She was a saint for putting up with him and all his baggage. “Give Sakura a message for me.”

Naruto frowned, feeling saddened by the way things were. He’d always regret things turning out this way for his friends. Neither of them deserved this. Neither of them could ever be completely happy, when they couldn’t ever even see each other.

“Tell her, I’m sorry for everything.” Sasuke told him, and then he was gone, leaving Naruto to mull over his thoughts alone and he couldn’t help feeling, that it wasn’t Sasuke who should be sorry at all.

…

Cursing under his breath, Sasuke leaned against a nearby tree, feeling more torn than he had in the longest time. Sending a message through Naruto, to his wife, was pathetic. He felt like shit. He knew Sakura understood. Knew that she missed him, but would always wait for him. She loved him that much, he knew it, but still, that’s not how he wanted things to be. He worried about her a lot, having to raise Sarada alone, without him every being around. Hell, his own kid didn’t even know him.

Meeting with Naruto truly hadn’t been good for him, because as much as he knew he shouldn’t do it, he was going back. He had to see her, to tell her himself, if only to know that she really did understand. Did she forgive him? Would she welcome him home with open arms, or send him packing, which in his eyes would be what he deserved. It was true that he was only trying to protect them, and Sakura knew that, but still, they were his only family and he was never there for them.

He almost turned around when he arrived at their home. It was late. He shouldn’t be doing this, he really shouldn’t… But, he had to.

Before he could stop himself, Sasuke walked inside and silently closed the door behind him. He took a moment to look around, taking in his home for the first time in years, though not much had changed.

It was quiet in the house and for a moment, he feared that Sakura may have been sleeping. He knew Sarada would be, having academy the next morning and all, but he hadn’t thought if Sakura would be or not. If she was, he’d wake her because he’d come this far. There would be no leaving until he saw her, spoke to her, and showed her just how much he truly missed her.

A loud crash and the sound of something breaking, followed by and even louder, “Shannaro!” told him that she was actually more than awake. The sound was enough to draw a smirk to his lips and he found that his feet had no intention of letting him stall any further. It would probably be hard to leave, in fact he was certain it would be, but he couldn’t stop himself.

He only hoped he was making the right decision.

Sasuke felt guilty for many things, but he refused to feel guilty for a leisure night and seeing his wife. Nobody was following him, though he was still taking a risk in coming here. He had to believe if he deserved nothing else, he deserved one night… and if he didn’t, Sakura did.

Their bedroom was where he found her. The door was wide open, so he could see her instantly. She was on her hands and knees, picking up several pieces of broken glass, that had once been a picture frame. She was biting her lip, looking quite conflicted and deep in thought. Sasuke wondered idly if Naruto had delivered his message, if that’s what had her so shaken.

Once each piece of broken glass was gathered into her grasp, she stood with a sigh, taking only one step before she noticed him in the doorway, watching her. Lips parting in surprise and green eyes widening considerably, she dropped the already shattered frame and once more it clashed to the floor, all around her feet.

“S…Sasuke…kun.”

Instantly, he was before her, gazing down at her adoringly. He’d missed her more than she’d ever know. More than he’d ever admit.

“Sakura…”

Overwhelmed with emotion, tears welled in her eyes and Sakura flung her arms around her husband. My, how she’d longed for this day, and not only her, but Sasuke as well.

It felt good to see her. To hear her voice. To feel her against him.

He wrapped his lone arm around her in return to her embrace, and rested his chin atop her head.

“I’ve missed you.” She grumbled into his chest, but he was still able to make out her words.

Sasuke said nothing in return, but when she leaned back to gaze at him, he released her to bring his hand to her face instead. His fingers ghosted over her cheek tenderly and as she met his eyes, she noted the pain that was there.

Usually, Sasuke wasn’t an easy person to read, even for her. But at that moment, she could see the confliction he felt, the concern, the guilt, and it only made her hold him tighter.

“How long do we have?” She asked, knowing by the look on his face alone that he wasn’t home for good.

That didn’t matter to her though. Just knowing that he’d come to see her, if only for a moment. For her, it was enough.

“Just the night.” He murmured quietly in answer, his hand now cupping her face as his thumb stroked her cheek affectionately.

Sakura nodded in understanding, but Sasuke frowned. His wife was strong, he knew it better than anyone and though he admired her greatly because of it, he resented himself for putting such a heavy burden on her. He’d been doing it his whole life. When would he ever be able to make her truly happy?

“You should have a nice meal while you’re here… Oh, and a shower! I’ll-”

“No.” Sasuke cut her off.

Food was the furthest thing from his mind and he’d stopped to bathe not long before meeting Naruto, but it warmed him to the depths of his soul to see how much she cared. She would always worry about him before herself and this annoyed him. He loved it, he adored her for it, but things should have been the other way around. He didn’t deserve her kindness, her love and affections.

She’d always been far too good to him.

“Is everything okay?” She asked worriedly then. “You’re not injured, are you? You should rest-”

Sasuke cut her off once more, though this time by sealing her lips in a kiss. Astounded by the abrupt kiss and even more-so by how quickly it ended, Sakura gaped at her husband with pinkening cheeks.

Sasuke smirked at this and casually ran his thumb across her bottom lip, his eyes softening.

He really had missed her.

“Uh… Um…” Sakura averted her eyes nervously, having never anticipated this happening to her tonight. For a moment, she felt as if she must have been dreaming. But then, this was far too real and too amazing to be a dream.

“Thank you, Sakura.” Sasuke told her meaningfully. When it came to her and all she’d done for him, and continued to do, he’d always be thankful. No words could express his gratitude. She looked back to him timidly, her heart pounding.

“I mean it.”

“Sasuke-kun,” She whispered, gripping her hands into his cloak. “You don’t have to thank me. Ever.”

Fingers slipping into her hair, Sasuke tugged gently, forcing her head back at the same time he leaned down and kissed her again, this time much more passionately. Sakura kissed him back desperately, holding onto him for dear life.

Things were heating up and moving rather quickly. Before either of them knew it, they’d shed all their clothes and ended up on the bed together, an eager Sasuke on top of an equally eager Sakura.

“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura gasped as he pressed himself against her, his long and thick member prodding against her entrance before he filled her completely and so suddenly that she lost all her breath.

It hadn’t taken long (seconds really), for her to be more than ready to accommodate him, but it had been so long that she nearly forgot how it felt.Sasuke had almost forgotten himself, or rather, he remembered well enough, he just missed it; and nothing compared to pleasing his wife because it was so… pleasurable.

He moved slowly, enjoying the feel of her as he held himself up with his only arm and trailed hot, wet kisses from her lips, down her throat and to her breasts. His tongue laved at her skin, and the longer his stuck to one spot, the more forceful his mouth became. He nipped at her skin and suckled it too, leaving marks behind that she could heal, or enjoy until they vanished on their own. Honestly, he hoped she’d leave them.

When they were together like this, nothing else existed and Sasuke found himself more vehement and affectionate in those moments than he usually ever would. Sakura moaned loudly, her hands digging into his raven locks as he had his way with her body. Though it was the first time in such a long time, he reminded her easily of just how strongly he could make her body react to him.

Sasuke was close, so close he’d had to stop completely for a moment to collect himself and remember just who he was here to please. Himself, yes, he wanted to please himself but he wouldn’t forget about his wife. She was building towards her own orgasm, and though he was prepared to stop moving for a bit and tease her body until it begged for release, as he laid still, most of his weight rest on her body and his length throbbed inside her, he felt her body convulse.

Eyes rolling in the back of her head, Sakura groaned loudly and Sasuke kissed her hard to keep her quiet. The last thing he needed was Sarada waking up and coming to find out what her mother was moaning and groaning about in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t easy though, even keeping himself quiet as he moved again, thrusting himself inside her only a few more times before they both fell apart together. Sakura’s entire body trembled with aftershocks of her orgasm and Sasuke laid on top of her, completely breathless and at a loss.

How he’d ever gone so long without her, he’d never know.

…

“It’s been so long… and yet… with you being here now, it almost feels as if you’ve never been gone.”

Sasuke sighed and turned his face to kiss Sakura’s forehead. They’d gotten more comfortable in bed and were now under the covers, laying together. Sakura was halfway on top of him, much like he remembered her being when they’d used to sleep together. He hated to have to leave her at all, but he was thankful for what time he could have. He made himself believe that Sakura was looking at it the same way.

“I really am sorry, Sakura.” He wanted her to know that, to understand how sorry he was, but no words would ever be enough to explain his feelings, and he wasn’t good with words anyway. Luckily, that was something else she seemed to understand.

“Don’t say that.” She tipped her head back a bit to glare at him. “You know you’re only gone for good reason.”

“I know.” He muttered. He did know, but that still didn’t make it any easier.Sakura frowned but snuggled up to him again. Oh, it was heaven. She wished they could have this moment forever. “I’m the one who is sorry. You shouldn’t have to bear this burden alone.”

“I’m the only one who can.”

Rolling her eyes at this, Sakura found herself smiling in reminiscence. “You never change, do you?”

“Hn. Neither do you…” He smirked. “Annoying.”

She giggled then. How she wished he was around every day to call her annoying. “I miss you, so much.”

“I know. In time though, I’ll be home. For good.”

“Sarada asks about you. She looks just like you, you know…”

Sasuke flinched then. Though he was sure Sakura was doing an outstanding job of raising their daughter, with love and care enough to drown the child, he still feared her turning to hatred because of him and the last thing he wanted was for her to ever end up like him.

“She’ll never forgive me.” He muttered, more to himself than to Sakura and that was when she sat up in bed and really glared at him.

“Don’t say that!” She scolded him, pointed her finger into his chest. “Sarada loves you very much, even if she can’t see you right now. She’s a very kind child and once she can show you, you’ll see for yourself. She will always love you, just as I have.”

If there was one thing he truly hated, it was getting in his feelings. That was way out of his comfort zone, though he supposed with Sakura… it wasn’t the first time… she’d love him anyway, “I can only imagine how much she’d grown.”

“Oh, so much. She’s brilliant, and beautiful.” Sakura grinning broadly, it was easy to see how proud she was. Sasuke was proud too. He wished Sarada would know that.

“Of course she is.” He sighed and pulled her down, back against his chest before wrapping his arm snuggly around her.

Sakura rested her head on her husband’s chest and yawned. She was tired but she never wanted to sleep with Sasuke here. She only had so much time before he’d be gone again and there’d be no telling when she’d see him again.

“Sleep,” He told her with a yawn of his own. “I’ll wake you before I go, I’ll take a short nap as well.”

“Okay, Sasuke-kun… I love you.”

“I love you too, Sakura.”

Loved her, respected her, cherished her. He felt certain that she’d never be able to grasp how much she truly meant to him and her knew, he didn’t deserve her, but he was damned glad he had her.

…

“I wish you didn’t have to leave.” Sakura pouted and Sasuke knew she was really struggling to keep it together.

He knew it’d be hard to leave, for the both of them. “I know. I’ll be back though.”Sakura nodded. “I know… you always come home.”

Leaning down, Sasuke kissed her hard, savoring the feel of her lips against his. She was blushing scarlet by the time he pulled away. “Take care of yourself, and Sarada. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“Easier said than done.” She scoffed. She’d always worry about him. Taking care of herself and Sarada was just second nature to her.

She hugged him tight, wishing she never had to let him go but she did, and she didn’t want to make it any harder on him. So, after a moment, she pulled away, forcing herself to let go. It wouldn’t be forever. It would be time for Sarada to get up soon and she knew he’d want to be long gone before daybreak.

“But don’t worry, we’ll be fine too, as long as you are. We’ll be here waiting for your return.”

Sasuke nodded, knowing that they would be. He hoped to be back sooner, rather than later. After coming home, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay away. Years was something he wasn’t willing to waste. He’d already wasted too many. This mission was important, his family’s safety was of the upmost importance, but he wanted to be home with them. He couldn’t though, as long as he was putting them at risk to his enemies.

“Thank you, Sakura. For everything.” He gave her a soft smile, tapped her forehead and then he vanished in a puff of smoke, as if he’d never been there at all. It wasn’t easy for either of them, but he had to go.

He had to go, but he had so much to look forward to when he finally would be able to come home. He couldn’t wait, and with that to think about, he found himself in a much better mood as he headed towards his next destination. Soon, his travels would be over.

#ss-tyytyy #sasusaku #sasuke #sakura #sarada #request #ss fanfiction #ask me anything #send me asks #bluboothalassophile #uchiha family #sasusaku fanfic #sasusaku fanfiction #ss fanfic #ss fandom #lemon

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lizardswithoutlegs · 7 years

Text

HOOOOOWOWOAH BOY

ART ASKS

when i walk into a building i get to eat everybodys pencils and they cant say no

do it

( also thanks for asking ! )

itd bother me a lot less if everybody came to my apartment and took one of these beautiful eggs

YEAH UNFORTUNATELY IM STILL..... WORKING THROUGH THE SAME WAITLIST but im comparatively REAL CLOSE to being done with it and i should be opening up sometime later in...... the Year

Boy Have I

theres This messy thing from a while back and then also

THIS, from even FURTHER back, when i didnt realize how fucking RED all the outlines on my things were because of the monitor i was using, two for the price of one

why not both

i do Not but it you ever see me walking on the street please throw handfuls of teeth at me theyre the only things my wretched body can digest and im always hungry

OH MAN ok so, an art telephone game is based on, of course, the game telephone, where one person says a phrase and then whispers it to the next person, and so on and on until the person at the very end says whatever they heard and if its done right the final sentence is wildly different than what you started with

an ART telephone game is the same kind of concept, except one person draws out a scene or character, and then other artists draw THEIR interpretation of whats going on, and so forth until the last person can end up with something COMPLETELY different than what the first scene was

youd think thered be less room for error with drawings, but as each person ONLY sees what the person ahead of them has made, they can get PRETTY OUT THERE - im gonna be a part of pythosarts game, and theyve done a couple of em before - for example one round started with THESE as the first two drawings

and then fourteen interpretations later, ended up with these as the final two

its good its real good

I Cant Control Where Bigfoot Goes, I Can Only Take Note Of Where Hes Been

YEAH, sort of ! on the main, iguanamouth, i have a bunch of different tags for art depending on what they are but not really a catchall one, BUT i do have an art only blog where everything gets tossed over !

HONESTLY THE ADVICE i got is basically what all art advice is gonna boil down to eventually - you gotta just. do it. you gotta DO it

absolutely nobody you know who draws things well started out at the level theyre currently at, and putting down the things youre visualizing onto paper is a combination of getting the the technical aspects down as much as getting the idea in your head

and that goes with figuring out anatomy and how bodies are put together ! ive got to use references for a Million things,. especially the dragon hoards - theres absolutely nothing wrong with using references for your drawings ! and being able to create accurate representations of things without looking is something that comes more with drawing something over and over and memorizing the body shape more than just, feeling like you should KNOW how to do something

so dont beat yourself up for needing references. if youre trying to shy away from them a little bit but still cant make something look nice without em, try using several different reference photos to put together an entirely different pose ?

theres ALSO the SHRIMP METHOD, which is great for practicing and getting good at one particular thing - this probably isnt SUPER HELPFUL but good luck !

god i tried. exactly ONCE maybe fourish years ago but it wasnt art, i was trying to stream the lion king movie and i had no idea what i was doing, i didnt realize i needed to wear headphones so the sound wouldnt snowball into a feedback loop of my own voice that never ended but i kept laughing and it kept distorting worse and worse, like the audio version of saving and resaving something as a jpeg

it was just me and my friend ronni in the stream and ONE other person who never left and never said anything and i kept addressing them out loud like WHO ARE YOU and that only compounded the noise problem and eventually i gave up

anyway i havent tried since

i uhhhhh dont think i COULD, really - fear especially is something thats kind of subjective and one persons Big Terror could be neutral or even cute to another person

like for me i used to have a lot of childhood fears about the ocean, and how deep and dark and vast it was, to the point where i couldnt play a lot of water levels in video games, even ( but i had almost drowned several times when i was Very young which probably had, a little somethin to do with that )

maybe sometime ill try to explore things IM afraid of, but its hard to encompass a psychological response in an image !! could be a fun experiment, though ! !

a few PLANT ANIMAL AZKZ, HUH, DONT HAVE A WORKING Z KEY

SHIT DUDE THESE ARE... SO GOOD thats the official name EVEN IF i didnt use. a daffodil as the flower base. it doesnt matter

yes

i got A BUNCH of flower and plant themed suggestions and theyre all REALLY GOOD ( way more than these ) but straight up im taking a break from em for a while - if anybody is else is reading this though you should definitely tackle one of em

WASABI ASKS

Do Not Feed Animals The Paste

i keep going back to read this ask because you could replace wasabi with my name and its the exact same. its the same. i feel like i have to hide somewhere

this was real and this is the award they gave us

there were other awards but the judges refused to give them out. they burned them in front of the other dogs. we won

it depends on the age ! wasabis pretty much an adult, so her sheds are pretty infrequent ( usually once every 7-8 months ) BUT when she was still growing back like 6 years ago, she would do a full-body shed every other month !

wasabi accepts tokens of appreciation in the form of : fruit, green beans. No Exceptions

i would never seperate wasabi from her hands

absolutely..... not. not even a little bit h h hh a this isnt a disney animal companion, i dont even know what “kind of like a dog” means with , a lizard who cant make any vocalizations or get up on their hind legs or NOTHIN sometimes if i hold a piece of fruit on my hand and she reaches for it she gets confused on whats what and tries to bite my fingers instead

ONCE WHEN SHE was attacking her reflection in a mirror i put my hand in front of her face to break eye contact and she SUNK HER TEETH RIGHT IN THERE but immediately let go like “oh whoops”

lissten . . . wasabi is so sharp, just absolutely everywhere, and these are the sharpest. the grabbers

heres a lil battle damage from earlier today actually

this is pretty tame BUT the long long lines are from claws, and the thinner, closer together ones are from holding her and her scales scraping against the skin. so not even just the Body is completely safe ! this is not an animal youre gonna wanna get your face real close to if theyre in a walkin mood

she doesnt even MEAN to scratch the shit outta me, its just kind of a byproduct of being a big tree lizard. her tail is absolutely the worst thing to get hit by though. the WORST. lucky me she doesnt attack anything that isnt a dog or a vacuum cleaner or her own reflection

ahhh i got her when i was 16 ! and i dont know her exact age but she was somewhere between 3-6 months when i get her - SHES probably closer to 9 years, but ive had her for about 8

LENGTH THOUGH...... the last time i measured her she was just barely under four and a half feet, but that was a few months ago and its possible shes. Just Slightly larger. shes currently sleeping as i type this so i guess we will never know

duel me

too late for coats..... its all tail action now

ROCK ASKS AND ALSO ASKS ABOUT PUTTING ROCKS IN YOUR MOUTH

oh MAN i feel you . . . . . . . . . . i dont think i could actually Bear To Eat any for real but some of em. just. they. i gotta. just. bite on em a LITTLE just a little bit, a tiny bit, a nibble

when i was real young i used to tap things against my teeth to tell what kind of substance they were made of based on the feeling/hardness/density WHATEVER and i still sometimes do it when im checking stuff out and. it uhhhhh sure is interesting finding out not a lot of people did that

a handful of these delicious raw agates, just for you

please stop spying on me

i DO NOT but you may eat this piece of bornite

meet me at the airport and ill cover your bus fair

theres a lotta different ways to figure out what kind of rocks you got but when you have absolutely no clue on where to start your best bet is to search for the biggest distinctive features of it, and try to narrow it down based on the results

like for something like these pieces of chalcedony, you could try “waxy green translucent mineral”, and from the search results find a few candidates that might be what you have on hand, and then look into each one to see if you can get a definite answer

ive got a handful of rock and mineral guide books that i always pick through whenever i snag something im not sure of, and if youre REAL into it those are always something you could start keeping an eye out for

now this is a REAL superficial way to telling what something is and wont be useful for a good chunk of minerals ( as a lot of samples can look really close to something else ) and THIS is a much more in depth way of telling something apart, but its also a lot more time consuming ! so good luck. and good eating.

Just Try And Fucking Stop Me

ANIMAL ASKS THAT ARENT............ ABOUT MY LIZARD

im married to this one actually

fuck. ok. heres. a secret. a In the ask Post secret. wasabi goes through a period that lasts a month every single year where she carries eggs in her gut, and spends that month not eating and digging around in everything, trying to find the right spot to lay these eggs. and. when it happens i never know what to do with them, and i dont want to just THROW THEM AWAY so i. eat them. i eat the eggs. i fuckin eat the eggs dude

Theyre All Goddesses

unless you plan on having your lizard roam around outside whenever they want, the outside environment doesnt really matter much for most reptiles as long as you set their habitat up right ! BUT i do know that australia has bans on certain reptiles ( iguanas are one of them ) and so youre gonna have to look up whats actually available in that area

bearded dragons are native and those are always a good option, but so are a lot of geckos - its really gonna depend on what youre into ( but i dont really recommend anoles if thats an option, because theyre fast as Hell and dont like being handled )

what the fuck is a bee

oh geez im sorry ! i remember going through this with spiders a lot when i was younger to the point where looking at photos of em used to be a fuckin, TRIAL

you could try a really gradual exposure deal, where you start off with getting comfortable with just images, and slowly working your way to dealing with one in a controlled setting ( like a petstore, maybe ? not HANDLING em or anything, but just being near one in a way where its absolutely impossible for them to touch you )

the shitty thing about this kind of phobia is that even if you KNOW its irrational theres sometimes not a lot you can do about it, but if you can stand looking at photos of them you could try learning up about them, and finding out the types of species youre likely to encounter around your house, and seeing how many ( if any ) are ones you should avoid ?

i know some people that have major problems with snakes are because theyre unsure if the ones they find are poisonous or not, and it might go a long way to confirm that the reptiles you meet wont be able to harm you even if they TRIED ( which is gonna be the case with a lotta house geckos, they cant do SHIT youre a GIANT )

very VERY few lizards have venomous bites, and the worst most of em can do is give you a bloody finger if theyre large enough, and even then its usually not much worse than a cat scratch !

still though, if youre really serious about trying to get past this, dont force yourself too quick into what you think you SHOULD be, and take tiny steps outta your comfort level when you can

this probably isnt uhhh SUPER helpful hh hhah but good luck ! shit im going through this post and its like ALL reptile photos. im sorry

i feel about them, with my hands

MMM it shouldnt HURT them unless theres something Really wrong, considering its a natural procession of growth, BUT its definitely itchy as hell, to the point where reptiles trying to remove it will drag their bodies over stones or walls tryin to get it off

sometimes wasabi drags her whole hind foot over her head like a dog to get it off and it is. a Sight

ahhh honestly there arent a lotta reptiles thatre gonna do much more than TOLERATE the touch and not really, enjoy it, like a dog or cat or bird

but speaking from experience with wasabi, youll probably want to avoid most the head and stick with the top of the back near the sides - wasabi doesnt enjoy having her tail messed with much either, but shes ok with her dewlap and feet being touched

the most important thing to keep an eye out for when youre touching one is their body language, because THATS gonna be a dead giveaway for whether you need to back off or not

closing their eyes is a sign of stress, not enjoyment ! same with tilting the head back, but if thats ALL theyre doing then youre probably not gonna face any retaliation

B U T if theyve got an extended dewlap with a raised body or tail off the ground, not a good idea to interact with em ! thats a defensive posture, and you risk getting hit with a tail or even bitten if your hand gets too close

youve got more to risk with males, who are way more territorial and generally larger, but if they seem pretty chill when you approach and dont stand up and stare at you, youre probably in the clear

COCK of the ROCK

I HAVE im so jealous of anybody whos got to see one in person - actually handling one is a level beyond that which i could even comprehend

OTHER THINGS.....

no but i was bit by a pigeon once

this is the only joke i know

i fuckin WISH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ayy im into it - honestly i havent been following the band so much as just kinda, picking up whatever anybody else mentions and so my knowledge on Gorillaz Lore is pretty uhhhh h hh h scattered but im definitely interested in seeing where this goes

i remember watching the first and second season and it being pretty good - some of the episodes and jokes are hit and miss but you absolutely got me with the creature and alien design

havent seen any of the third season yet though !

i mean the fruit ones could be pretty up there

how bout. an abstract concept. who cares about physical forms wheres the dragon of melancholy

why come theres nothing to eat in my apartment but bread. im good otherwise but its all just bread

i havent watched either of em in YEARS and YEARS but i distinctly remember. these lil dancing mushrooms

oh wait FUCK

FUCK !!!!!!!!!

no... NO.... she is not allowed to eat ANYTHING from the plan shelf, try as she MIGHT

im a little mad that this sill isnt bigger because the only other one that gets sun is in my room and wasabi WIll... absolutely eat those. no doubt. a convenient and expensive salad, for my awful gremlin

god im looking at these and its all jade plants isnt it

little golden books taste the best but they can make you sick if you have too many at once. my favorite genre for snacking is sci fi fantasy but anything over 300 pages tends to get a little tough if you dont break it up with smaller chunks. non fictions always a gamble because the taste is wildly different each time but you can usually tell how ripe it is by the cover color

ayy im already a big fan of some of their stuff, ive got a couple songs from them in my music tag - im especially into i miss you and their shut up and bring it here remix

TOP FIVE THINGS

this is barely related but once i filled up a bathtub with water and then dumped about ten bags worth of mint tea into it and then just. soaked around in the tea. listen it was really nice. id try the cheese

i dont have any ships but i was on one of those model pirate boats once for a school trip. our boat was named naruto and the other one was named sasuke and the captains shouted “make them kiss” and ran them into each other. everybody on board drowned

youre trying to trick me into googling yoshi without shoes and its not going to work

me reading this message from the safety of my apartment :

nice try, but wrong again ! : )

THIS IS GOOD info, thank you

oh SHIT the other side of paradise, take a slice, life itself, and season 2 episode 3 are all my Big Faves

the way you phrased this makes me think you already have a strong opinion on it

hey uh. coming from a person who was absolutely CONVINCED that theyd be dead in the future when they were 12, a not insignificant part of that was me feeling that there was something irreversibly wrong with me for not behaving or acting in certain ways based on what was going downstairs

and obviously im still HERE but it means i can understand how devastatingly terrible it can feel when youre that young and it seems like the way you behave and feel are flawed, or dirty, and anything that can lessen that feeling and make you comfortable in your own body is huge, can save your life

not that im saying its always a LIFE OR DEATH decision !

i guess if youre viewing it as adults forcing a child into making decisions that you dont think theyre capable of understanding its easy to be hesitant about getting behind it, but nobody is forcing a child to be trans. nobody has tricked them into feeling this way. you cant just walk in and get started on treatment on an immediate whim - some programs require 2 YEARS of concrete evidence before theyll even consider it

i feel like you should try speaking to the parents of trans children before you really put down a concrete opinion on whether this is a good or bad thing, and seeing the difference ( if any ) its made in their lives

people whove detransitioned, or found they had ultimately a different identity than the one they were exploring could also be an avenue to look intto ! i have several acquaintances who, after a period of years, found they werent trans but wouldnt take back the time where they were figuring out if they were, and i know this doesnt invalidate the friends i have who ARE

ultimately this is what it boils down to for me : Its Sure Gotta Beat Being Dead

i WILL give you that ive definitely seen a lot of overreactions to seemingly innocuous topics on this website

but youve also got to keep in mind that everybody who is saying these things MEANS them, and to them theres a completely reasonable explanation to why they feel that way

im not saying you should blindly accept any criticism you get, but to instead try to get a grasp on WHY theyre responding the way they are instead of immediately dismissing it

its because i cant drive and they wont let me sit in the front on account of the smell

NICE THINGS

AHHHH I GOT.. a bunch of other really sweet messages to the point where id feel weird about putting em ALL UP BUT... IF YOU SENT ME SOMETHING i can promise i absolutely saw it and it made my day better and just, holy shit, thank you for taking time out of your life to say anything to me at all

because you didnt have to, even a little bit

youre all beautiful and im kissing you on the mouths all at once. no take backs

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sala218 · 7 years

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Hi! I'm also watching Tales of Zestiria, but I can't play the game. I saw your posts about how anime isn't... accuarate at best. Could you tell me more about the changes in the story that anime made? With spoilers and everything, I'd like to know how much I'm missing.

Oh dear did they change A LOT!

While I’m not most knowledgeable at all Tales of Zestiria lore and for more accurate of everything-what-anime-mess-up @talesofsymphoniac would definitely know much more.

But lets just say 1st season for biggest part was somewhat close to original except the very end where it started to deviate so much more, and personally I think that that’s the beginning of down fall of the anime.

Aside minor things like Berseria moments that would have been so much cooler if whole anime was done differently, they weren’t in original. And I don’t find myself missing those little bits in game, I mean it does give bit more depth to to the lore and all, but like it was a good idea but it sort of just flopped.

Then lets tackle Alisha matter, in game she left party before Rose joined, she was quite great character and while I did wanted more of her, the way anime gave us Alisha, in my opinion was way sad. In game she grew so much, and although hurt because Maltran actually had been hellion and betrayed Alisha, honestly I’d suggest to look it up on google, that moment actually made me tear up, unlike how we had Maltran as supportive mentor in anime till the end, all that drama with Alisha’s father frankly wasn’t given in game and in anime itself it sort of fell flat…

Rose joined part COMPLETELY differently, she saved Sorey after he first faced Lord of Calamity in Glaivend Basin, and she is afraid of ghosts, having seraphim speak to her without her seeing them had terrified her, even after she could see them, at times they still scared her when she heard only their voices. And what happened in anime? Oh but of course she spoke to Dezel calmly even though she COULD NOT SEE HIM. and while its minor deviation, I think it kinda gives more character to her, but whatever…

Anyway Rose story line deviated FAR too much to make comparison,

and so it failed some Sergei moments, but at least even in cluster fuck of what anime is he still fairly same in the personality wise, at least.

Back to squires for min, Alisha never got armatus, she just didn’t have big enough resonance, that in anime was completely forgotten but oh well,,, Also none of that telepathic bs with squires and shepherd.

Dragon purification in game was impossible, unless you count Maotelus, but for that Sorey went to sleep for who ever knows how long. And the fact that Edna had to give up on purifying her brother and accept that only way to save him is to kill him, and in game for me it was actually emotional moment too, but in anime, they can save him,,, and so like yay? I guess… I like Eizen, really but whole purifying dragons just takes away from Sorey character bit too much…

Reason why Sorey was amazing protagonist in the game, because he was simple nerd, he wasnt all that special, didnt have grand ambition till later on in the game, after he saw world and all, and not making him any better than other Shepherds that were before him, keeping him as human as possible, that made him amazing, but in anime he suddenly can purify dragons that no one could before him, I’m sorry what? Also maybe due to keeping game mechanics consistent you couldn’t armatize with all seraphim at the same time, and honestly it was quite nice that there were ground rules, they kinda important, anime seems to be going like whatever seems cool, and I kinda understand why anime only fans would like it, but for those who are familiar with the game, its like ripping all the world rules apart and throwing it all out of the window, well not cool…

Mayvin, the story teller was really important too, he told of how the Lord of Calamity was born, he, true to his title, told what truly happened in the Camlann, and boy it was far more important then just birth of the Lord of Calamity, it was also Mikleo’s and Sorey’s back story, and why a human boy, Sorey, was in care of Zenrus, a seraphim. Because you said spoilers are okay, let me tell you that that the baby Mihael sacrificed was actually Mikleo, hence why he is a young seraphim and even was show as a child while none of the other seraphim were, seraphim were once humans, unless its animal seraphim, but you get what I mean, yea. And while it was hinted in anime with the tiara thingy he took from Muse, if you knew about it you see it right away, but not sure if everyone could have made the connection, not saying no one would, but yea, it was truly down played,,, Also in the original, now, it’s been while, but Im pretty sure Lailah knew of how it all ended in Camlann, also in the game all party saw the story, not just Sorey and Lailah, so it had far bigger impact.

Symonne never turned to dragon, and lets keep it at that.

Honestly anime changed so much details, that drawing a comparison is almost impossible anymore. Its like an AU, with many major important and not that big details that made the game so charming completely ruined. Its like anime have completely different set of rules that weren’t even given to us properly.

Surely, when you aren’t familiar with source material at all, it is cool anime. I have seen even those that are familiar with the game and enjoy the anime. Personally to me, I’m just waiting for it to end, to see if they put it as some sort of Tainted AU, or they keep to original ending, but that seems unlikely,,,

I’m sorry, I’m just very salty, if you liked the characters I do suggest to play the game or if you cannot, then watch walkthrough on youtube or something, its good story, it really is. It’s just that anime changed so much, destroying most of what I loved about the game.

@llevellynvaneck

#toz #tozx #tales of zesteria the x #im very salty person atm #llevellynvaneck #its just too much that was changed #im still watching it out of spite honestly #like give me your worst #but as stand a lone #i guess its fine?#sala speaks #answered #long post

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kellodrawsalot · 7 years

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Top five worst Sonic Archie issues

So a while back me and @greenyvertekins talked a bit about our favorite Sonic Archie moments, I was thinking of doing a TOp five/top ten favorite Sonic archie issues but honestly the moments I and Greenyvertekis mentioned were pretty much my favorite/best issues. So if you want to read here! most of them are also from the best written arcs so .....

Then I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to do a top five WORST Sonic arche issues instead? :) (warning Im from the Netherlands so my English is bad, feel free to spell correct me!)

Number 05 Issue 172

Going pretty low in the list because despite this being one of my least favorite issues it should be noted that this was the start from the comic getting better and better at this point, this ugly-face just was the blacksheep from that collection.

Not only was the cover a bad reminder that the comic was seen as bad-furry-romance-drama which I really hoped the comic wanted to distant itself from it, the entire issue is a sadlyalso bad-furry-drama. It starts off with Amy Rose confronting Fiona Fox about the rumors that she heard from Tails that she is cheating on Sonic with Scourge, (the Green Edgy Sonic recolor) Now the story of Fiona Fox is a pretty sad one, she never had much of a character to begin with. She was first introduced as a robot in her child form to lure Tails into a trap. It turns out that Eggman based her off a real person: Fiona Fox who someway or another was left behind by Mighty and Sonic in Eggman’s prison and she manage to escape but stil holding a grudge and got angry at them for it, That is mostly what I remember her from in the past issues. From then on she would just be background character number 55 a freedom fighter with no dialog, the only times I sort of remember her was that she liked the idea of using guns, and that Sonic was afraid for Tails to be rejected by the too-old-for-you girl Fiona.Sonic wanted to talk to FIona about this issue and she mentions she still thinks SOnic is selfish for leaving her behind but that his sacrifice in issue 125 made her change her mind somewhat, That’s it. Now the weird story behind Fiona is that Karl Boilers planned to use her as a second-love interest for Sonic after Sonic broke up with Sally. Sonic was supposed to enter a relationship with Amy Rose shortly after the Sonic/Sally break up. (Keep in ind that Amy Rose back then was still 10 years old mentally at that time YIKES.) and Fiona for whatever reason was to become a rival to Amy for Sonic’s affections. Now Ken Penders apparently interfered with this idea and Karl and Ken changed it into...Fiona Fox becoming Sonic’s girlfriend instead...out of the blue....out of nowhere. At least with Amy you knew she had a crush on Sonic but with Fiona? why would Sonic ever enter a relationship with a girl he hardly interacted with and with a girl his best friend was crushing on? ..moving on various issues later and writer Karl Boilers and Ken Penders were no longer on board and new writer Ian Flyn entered into the picture it was by then far too late to clean up this mess and I could tell from the comic’s writing that Ian wasn’t sure what to do with Fiona, he tried to give her a more Sally-personality with a bad history but that felt tripped and forced. He knew he had to break the two characters off and he thought the best way to do that was to reveal that Fiona Fox became a bad-girl who fell in love with Scourge due to the events off Sonic 150 (dont worry that issue will be brought up later)

Not only did this came out of no where, it felt forced even if Fiona had no character it felt like she really was just a pawn of a writer not sure what to do with her. It also didnt help that the issue ends in a weird anticlimatic way and in the next issue most of the characters dont even talk or seem to be phazed with Fiona’s betrayel and Sonic would be slightly flirtatious with Sally and Amy in the next issue too, (Really Sonic you just got dumped.) The issues saving grace is a cute side story with Amy Rose and Julie Su training together and some decent/good art overall.

Number 04 Knuckles the Echidna issue 32

Yes Knuckles does count as part of the Sonic series, and if the list would be Knuckles comic focused this would have been number one. Not only was this the last issue of probably the most boring arc I ever read It also nailed the coffin on the Knuckles series as it was canned after this issue. It introduced two very uncreative very Un-SegaSonic like characters: Monk and Hunter whose design and motivations are as generic as you can imagine. Ken Penders tries to make you feel for the Monk-character but I dont think anyone was convinced. I own this issue as well and HONESTLY I forgot I even read this issue as a child it was that forgettable, even in my Knucklesfangirl phase as soon as I finished reading the last 3 issues I forgot about it, It also doesnt help that the covers while nicely drawn by Galan were cluttered and too busy, Ken Penders did the book’s art and while he did a perfect job drawing Hunter his cartoon characters were always off-model and the way he draws large mangaeyes didn’t look well. In other words the art wasnt good either.

I only remember these issues because of @hedgehogscantswim review, which I suggest you guys read into as they go into much greater depth on their blog on the flaws of the art, the character designs of Monk and Hunter and the overall big problem the last issue has.

Number 3 Sonic issue 134

Oh Yeah let’s talk about the big one, let’s talk about the issue that caused many Sonic fans to drop the comic, lets talk about the issue that split the fanbase in half and what made the Sonic-Archie comics the laughing stock of Sonic spin offs for years to come until Ian Flyn joined and the much later soft-Reboot. If the Sally/Sonic/Mina love drama didn’t convince people that the comic had badfurryromance drama this issue sure did.

Sonic sacrificed himself in issue 125 to save the world, but was transported to a different planet cause science, he survived and had space adventures with Aliens, met up with Tails parents somehow...(Really those issues are all a blur too me at this point.) he came back to Mobuis only to discover a year has passed since then, he reunites with his nowwithlonghair girlfriend Sally and by issue 125, Sally makes it clear to Sonic that she wants him by his side as she is sort-of forced by her parents to no longer be on the battle field. However Sonic cant possibly do that, he is the hero after all, he cant be tied down Sally clearry suffering from trauma after Sonic’s death begs him to stay by her side, Sonic tearfully tells her he can’t and Sally takes Sonic’s rejection pretty well and says that she knows being a hero is in Sonic’s blood and decides to reject her parents wishes and join her boyfriend and the rest of her friends on the battle field.

No wait Never mind, she SLAPS him across the face and calls him Selfish and breaks up with him afterwards.

Not only did this issue came in the worst possible time when the Sonally/Sonamy ship wars was rampant in the Online Sonic fandom communities. The motivation and reason for Karl Boilers to do this was in such a bad taste as well. Karl who MOST Likely was aware of the growing popularity of the Sonamy ship and the hatred the sonamy fanbase had for Sally, from people calling her a marry sue, a slut because her lack of pants, ugly due to her brown color sceme, and other funny-horrible things because shipping is serious business, Probably wanted to win and be favored by a part of the Sonic fan base and had outlined plans to have Sonic and Amy Rose become an official couple in the comics. (Even if Karl wrote Amy Rose as a 10 year old mentally girl with a body of a 12 year old together with a 17 year old teen Sonic.) They had to become a couple. How to do this you ask? by breaking Sonic/Sally up and portraying Sally out to be a selfish cunt of a woman, not only was this so disgustingly out of character and a slap to the face to the sonally and Sally fans, it was all to make the fans to transaction to the idea of Sonamy instead. It didnt help Sally’s position in the fanbase and she along with Chris and Elise would be among the list of the most hated characters where extreme Sonamy fanbrats now had valid proof on their side.It would take years for Sally to recover. To add insult to injury the only nice thing about the issue is the introduction of new artist John Gray (whose animish-cartoondisneyish style was colorful, pleasant and very pleasing to the eye! was more then needed at that time since the art quality standards was low back then. )John has stated he did NOT like working on this issue either due to the content and story. I am so thankful that Sally has been much better written for years now.

Number 02 Sonic Super Special issue 07 Crossover with Image Comics

Where to start with this, oh boy oh boy. I put this very high on the list because this has to be one of the worst crossovers spin ofss I have ever had the pleasure of reading. and I mean that the Powerrangers/TMNT crossover was more enjoybale that this mess. This is also very high on the list not only because the art was below average and many characters were off models but Mister Ken Penders used this crossover special to shoehorn his own ‘’characters’ from his comic book series the Lost Ones. (who btw got canned after only volume 01) his characters got the most attention out of everyone else. A image-comics with Sonic crossover already sounds sort of weird and silly but hey I am Spawn fangirl, I am intrigued. But I dont even get that.

(oh wait, this is fucking it, Spawn appears for about a page to say no to Sonic and then leaves thats it??) FOR FUCK SAKE....

Honestly @robotnikholmescomicblog gave this comic a great review and I suggest going to their tag of Ken-Penders-Why as they bring out most of the flaws of Ken Penders writing and they said it better then I ever will.

Overall the issue is just a mess, with shallowcheap cameos of image characters, Sonic and the freedom fighters being DICKS to most of the human characters for no reason, a very anti climatic ending and a giant commercial for Ken Penders doomed and boring characters that nobody gave a dam about) characters that he planned to use in ‘’The Lost ones’’ and Knuckles 20 years later. With a character hinting to become Knuckles’s greatest enemy yet with a very ugly boring design that could rivals Hunter. (btw none of these concepts go anywhere, Lost Ones was canned, and Knuckles 20 years later didnt come in fruition the way Ken Penders wanted.)

and number 5, worst issue Sonic issue 150

This is my most least favorite issues up to date and why you might ask

well for one thing the art is okay, I give it that but it doesnt even start with Sonic,

no we get a quick-reveal of AntiSonic pretending to be the real Sonic flirting with all the girls in knothole

We get uncomfortable panels of Mina Mongoose almost cheating on her boyfriend with Sonic, Sonic and Bunnie making out and falling asleep next together, Sonic being creepy at Amy ect and none of the girls seem to realize that this is obvious not the real Sonic but ANti-Sonic. Everbody fails to notice that Sonic is trying to flirt with all the girls he gets his eyes on. Only Tails seems to quistion it. Shows how much his own friends seem to know him. Or his own freaking family. The real Sonic is stuck in anti-mobuis and is busy trying to convince them that he is not AntiSonic, it’s very boring and dull. Also since the real Ant was stuck in anti Mobuis couldn’t he have tried to come back to his own world with Sonic? I dont know that just confused the heck out of me, The extra side story also doesn’t help, Its the conclusion to TailS ‘’the Chosen One’’ which was,,,pretty lame too with bland-art, and has the unfortunate of introducing the fanbase to the still-hilarious Titan Tails

(OHfuckmethat’sstupid.)

So the stories are stupid, the art is okay and lame. Why is it so high on the list?

It’s THE 150 anniversary issue and this is how Karl and Ken apparently wanted to celebrate it? It also doesn’t help that the cover is really underwhelming and boring compared to the 125th issue but that’s it’s least of its problems. A short while later Ian Flyn and Tracey joined the team and Ken and Karl left. For the better. But talk about a lame way to celebrate a 150th milestone. What a waste.

#Archie Sonic #Sonic Archie comics #the worst #Ken Penders #Ken Penders is a douche #Kell0x #Hedehogscantswim #Sally Acorn #the slapp #Amy Rose #Fiona Fox #Ian Flyn #knuckles the echidna #sonic the hedgehog #greenyvertekins #robotnikholmes

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crypt-addict · 7 years

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EXCLUSIVE: Review of the ‘Demonstration (I)’ EP by CHURCHGATE.

**This is a direct copy of last weeks review of the pre-single in support of this EP - along with the addition of the reviews of the 3 new tracks; in order to review the Extended Play in full. Just to clear up any confusion caused**

Wow? Who would have thought the day would come where i…an unimportant reviewer in the depths of tumblrs’ half-arsed pastel, goth and alternative dungeons would have the chance to exclusively preview and review such a spectacular release?! I have tried my hand at reviewing many mainstream albums before, with pretty hit and miss responses; but i assure you - this is one review you definitely need to read through and listen to the end product, because by GOD you need CHURCHGATE in your life, like NOW.

The duo, consisting of Murdo and Jessie, is arguably, one of the best independent queer and alternative/dark synth bands to come out of 2017 so far, and in my opinion, the best. Raining from two very different corners of the country, with a 100 mile journey between them - this is one of the best musical outcomes of a long distance friendship i have seen, in my good decade of observing the DIY and alternative scenes. Mixing earworm guitar and synth leads, with haunting ghostly and scream-like vocals - which seep into your bones and out of your every nerve - shivering your senses and leaving you hungry to press the repeat button, like a hit of the best drug you have encountered; CHURCHGATE are definitely a force to be reckoned with. Don’t sleep on this release, because these guys are going to be big, sooner than you might think! Without any further ado, lets get into the track by track review:

–TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW–

WEEPING SONG: Beginning with sharp, and harsh guitar strikes, with a catchy but off-putting (in the best kind of way) synth structure soon jumping in, pulsating and enrapturing you like a siren of the post-goth era, Weeping Song is the début single everybody wishes they could put together. Reminiscent of some fucked up, euphoric musical smoothie, consisting of Alice Deejay’s ‘Better Off Alone’ and CRIM3S’ ‘BREED’ - with a pinch of Cocteau Twins; CHURCHGATE have clearly redefined the dark electro genre as we know it.

No ounce of emotion is spared as you focus onto each personal and relatable lyric, from “broken bone, forgotten home” to “still holding hands, we are the weeping” - it’s obvious just how much this song hits home, for me at least. I don’t know about anyone else but what captivates me with music is being able to have a sense of relation with the artist who wrote the lyrics, and with such a powerful tone its clear to see how much effort went into not just the complexity of the lyrics, but the instrumental- which in itself has countless layers of instruments, further drawing out emotion.

I don’t quite know how to say it in words, without sounding like a psycho - but music really does sometimes have the ultimate power to make you ‘feel’ sadness but also strength, the strength of ‘keeping-on-keeping-on’ and regardless of what shit life throws at you, carrying on with some façade of happiness, which eventually turns into true overcoming of sadness, and a real sense of happiness after all. Few songs manage to draw it out, but those that do leave a lasting memory on your heart and in your head. CHURCHGATE managed to reach that flag-post in their first track; something many bands can’t achieve til their final years together, or never at all.

My favourite thing about the lyrics is that they are relatable ina sense that, each verse could be taken with a variety of definitions. For example, my stand out lyric is perhaps one of the verses which could most definitely be interpreted into many different scenario’s - “pierce the night, with our light // held you down, without a fight”. For me the line suggests that whomever the song’s point of view is about, has overcame some trouble, and the light is suggestive of the dark times being over, but the struggle was hard, given that whatever held them back was so easy to give in to. With genre’s constantly moving on in terms of musicality and vocal techniques; it is a constant struggle to have your own sense of uniqueness within the community - but this track has no trouble finding its own benchmark within a variety of genre’s - and for that reason alone, is why i find myself so hexed whilst listening to it.

Musically, the song has a few key ‘changes’ in structure - around the half way point, the guitars become more prominent for a while, before becoming engulfed, but not overshadowed by the synths once more. A synth breakdown follows, where more layers gradually gravitate over the main melody until the bridge - where the guitars become highlighted once more. Leaving no stone unturned, the outro within itself, manages to give you one last shiver - refraining the synth melody that kicked in initially after the intro by itself, before submitting itself into a sea of white noise glory. I cannot do anything but recommend this track to anybody - regardless of their strict genre rules or tastes in music, i have all hope and trust that this track will go far. I’m calling it right now! And for that, this track deserves no less than a 10/10.

BELLS RING: Channeling a twisted take on the original dream pop track, originally by Mazzy Star - this cover is sickeningly sweet, in the strangest of ways. With Murdo’s aggressive, almost demonic mumbling of the lyrics, eerily distorted synth accompanies and Jessie channelling 80′s rock with his guitar leads - this is nothing short of a dark synth-wave take on a once serenading track.

Lines such as “Bells ring into the night, Sounds like a mistress on a rainy night” have a more mellow mumble, whereas the chorus; bearing lyrics such as “Nobody wants to know your reason why” resonate a creepier, more mischievous tone. All the while between the glorious guitar, short bursts of clashing synths give a sense of uneasiness, followed by a warm nostalgic feeling once more.

All in all, this cover is a gem amongst many covers of the song a quick YouTube search can find you. And in comparison to other artists who may decide to play it safe when using a cover as a b-side, CHURCHGATE went far, far, FAR from the ‘norm’ partially by choosing such a track that was little known to begin with, and also by conjuring up such a daring, whimsical and unique take on the track - vocals in particular. 9.7/10

PURE: Portraying a guitar lead reminiscent of oldschool college punk and rock works, pure is one of the softest and most mellow tracks on the EP - or so you thought...As the drums and synths drop into full on anarchy not long after the relaxing almost introduction.

Lyrics such as “I’m pure for you” and “The end has never been quite so sweet” cannot help but trigger a sense of abandonment of a relationship, with the one side feeling so much emotion for the other, whom has nothing quite left to give. Pure is to me, a great representation of not feeling good enough for somebody - and paired with the wholesome instrumental track makes for a lowkey banger if i’ve ever heard one! 8.9/10

FLORAL INTERLUDE: The perfect pairing of uneasy synth randomness and beautiful guitar riffs has the outcome of floral interlude. The shortest track on the album, and serving as a sickly sweet intro of sorts to the next track, i have never been so in love with an interlude in my life! I usually have the opinion that they’re pointless little half-afterthoughts to an album, but as of late, i really do believe they can add a lot to the theming and atmosphere of a release. In this case; that is ESPECIALLY the case!

It kinda reminds me of an old classic, yet i can’t put my finger on anything in my mind. It feels so nostalgic to my childhood, but i have no idea why or what to reference it to and i’m unsure whether to be creeped out or amazed by that - so i’m just gonna go ahead and say i’m shook instead!

Lyrically, the track is quite dark and beautiful - referring to being sprawled across a bed of dying leaves and’fleurs’ spouting from one eyes. The lyrics spread across your ears like jam but in the thought of them, after listening twice or three times, that’s kinda a scary thing to happen to someone?! Eitherway i’m so impressed with this interlude, and will scream from the rooftops of its greatness as i bask in this prickly rose garden it layed out before me; or should i say it encouraged to grow out my iris’ hahah. 9.9/10

PRECIOUS THING: Well, where do i start? We learnt from Bells Ring that CHURCHGATE don’t do conventional and fitting in when it comes to covering iconic tracks! In this instance they put their own spin on possibly one of the best punk rock/glam anthems to come out of the 80′s.

Keeping the guitars relatively similar, but possibly harsher - it is the vocals that completely suck you into this cover. Insturmentally, the track seems to be like a mashup of the original ‘precious things’ with the total cliché of american dream aesthetics and sounds, whereas Murdo’s vocals seem to malform into a gorgeously creepy, double-angst-raged embodiment of Joan Jett, screaming out the obviously sexual intended lyrics - such as “I will hold you down” and “You are my precious thing, as long as you remain beneath me”.

I didnt really know if 80′s punk could ever be topped, and i say this with no disrespect to the greats who coined the genre - BUT FUCK, CHURCHGATE REALLY CAN DOMINATE ANY GENRE AND TURN IT INTO A GOTH ROCK, SYNTH GLAZED, WITCH HOUSE, TRAP DOUBLE-DIPPED EXTRAVAGANZA! If you don’t enjoy this track are you really as punk as you think? 9.4/10

*TOTAL RATING: 9.9/10*

Overall, i see big things happening for these guys. They definitely have their heads screwed on, and their ideas mounted together in order to define themselves within the already diverse musical playing field. With a benign exterior, and an interior almost like being hit in the face with a candy-covered machete; i genuinely have nothing bad to say about this release! Now please excuse me whilst i drown in my tears at how emotional i feel after listening on repeat for days, hahah.

Always remember to support the artist! - you can get your very own copy of Demonstration (I) via churchgates’ bandcamp page ❤

#album review #albumreview

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