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yellowmagicalgirl · 3 years

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Cultures, Covens, and Coaching

Zoe steps in to help teach Claire.

I wasn't planning on doing anything for today's prompt until I realized that I could use it to infodump on my hedge wizard headcanons, and then somehow Claire angst snuck into the ending. I refuse to watch RotT, so if this has spoilers then it's entirely unintentional.

Takes place post-Wizards.

AO3

FFN

It was a quiet day at Zimue Records, aside from the multitude of fans whirring and failing to keep away the August heat. Zoe hated this part of living in Southern California – everything was so warm and humid in the late summer, and it wouldn’t get better until mid-to-late October. She wondered if receiving the insurance payout from the damage to the wall shared with the now-burnt down GDT Arcane Bookstore would mean the owner would finally install an air conditioning unit here.

Zoe felt a chill run through her as she sensed an ancient, eldritch magic. Lovely. First Hex Tech, then her best friend, and now those so-called demigods were going to wreck the record store. Zoe wouldn’t have it, not if she could help it. Behind the counter Zoe began to collect her magic. That was another thing she hated about the humidity – static electricity wouldn’t build up as easily, so she’d have to rely more on her own reservoir than the charged air.

The door pushed open, and the source of the ancient, eldritch magic stepped into the store. Or, more specifically, a teenage girl walked in, looking around. Zoe released her hold on her magic, wondering how an untrained wizard could have such a powerful signal.

“Zoe, right?” the girl asked. “Douxie told me to come find you, for help with training and stuff?”

Ah, right. That did sound familiar. All in one night (and longer because of time travel), Douxie had become a so-called master, taken in his own apprentice, and then passed off said apprentice to Zoe in a series of apologetic texts. Zoe had asked him what in the seven realms he had been thinking, and he’d then revealed that he’d left the state and was currently on the run with a demigoddess. Oh, and that he had also died, and really planned on doing as much tutoring as he could remotely but please?

“Yeah, he told me about you.” He’d also told Zoe his apprentice’s name, which Zoe was currently blanking on. Blaire, or something like that?

“I’m not exactly sure how well it’d work, though, since Merlin implied that you were a different type of wizard, so wouldn’t your magic work really differently than mine and Douxie’s?”

Zoe took a deep breath. According to Douxie, this girl hadn’t even known that she was a wizard until very recently. She wasn’t trying to reignite centuries-long cultural disputes.

“Do you think Douxie and I are two different species, or something?” The girl, whose name Zoe really needed to learn, looked very confused. “Because that’s the only way you can get magic working that differently. Likewise, it’s not like you could go to a troll for training and expect everything to work out the same way for spells.”

“Then, what’s the difference?”

“It’s entirely cultural. Douxie was raised through the apprentice system, in which a master takes in a single wizard and trains that singular wizard exclusively until they reach an arbitrary level that makes them a master. I’m from a coven, so I’m used to training multiple kids.”

“Wait, that’s the only difference? Then, aside from the fact that his ego was the size of a Heartstone, why was Merlin so annoyed by you being a hedge wizard?”

“Elitism.” And because Merlin must’ve had a second staff shoved up his arse. Of course, Zoe wouldn’t say that out loud until Douxie had had at least a month to grieve. She’d let that delicate matter rest for now. “And I’ll admit, the apprentice system has produced a higher ratio of super-powerful wizards, even ones who manage to achieve immortality, than the coven system.” There was a reason why they focused so much on staves, even though a staff was incredibly dangerous to use for someone who hadn’t been trained properly. A wizard could get too cocky, and they’d completely destroy their resevior as the staff siphoned out far more magic than the wizard had available to them.

“But,” Zoe continued, “that’s more because there have always been less apprentices being trained than those being trained by covens, and apprentices got more time devoted to them. But, I think Douxie is the last survivor of the traditional apprentice system.”

“Do you actually deal with hedges?”

Zoe blinked. This girl had seen Hex Tech; surely she had noticed all the technology and none of the greenery. “The word hedge wizard entirely applies to how covens were traditionally always been more rural, even back during the Roman Empire. It’s kind of like how on a farm, you have more kids to help out, and in a city you really focus on only a few kids because it’s another mouth to feed. And no, I’m only a couple years older than Douxie, so I wasn’t around during the Roman Empire.”

The girl nodded. “Okay. How do you want to start.”

“See that box of records over there?” Zoe said, pointing. “Levitate them.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “I can’t levitate things.”

Oh, seriously? This was the apprentice Douxie had picked out? Creepy magic, asked the wrong ignorant questions, and a quitter?

“Why?”

The girl hung her head slightly. “I get panic attacks whenever I try to levitate something.”

Oh. Well, the good thing was that Blaire-or-whatever-her-name-was wouldn’t take after her master and levitate records just to annoy Zoe. But, what had happened to this kid? Zoe knew she was involved with the troll stuff from earlier in the summer given her armor (and really, why was a kid wearing armor), but what had caused her so much trauma over levitation.

“Okay, then. No levitation, at least not until you start seeing a therapist or something. My shift here ends at 4:30, why don’t you meet me then to show me what you can do?”

#toa zoe #claire nuñez #tales of arcadia #toawizards #zoeappreciationweek #my writing

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subiysu · 3 years

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The curious situation of the Sanson Fourth generation

There is a lot of strange behavior in this tangled family tree. I’ll go sibling by sibling, eldest to youngest

Madeleine-Claude-Gabrielle Sanson,

Eldest child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and his first wife Madeleine Transon. We know very little of her, but the few details we have are...Interesting. She was born in circa 1738 and married Pierre Hérisson in 1754, at the young age of fifteen. Now, here is the interesting part. This probably was not a love marriage, since he was at least 10 years older than her and lived in another city (which ment they had even less opportunity to let them know each other). 10 years isn’t a huge age gap for an adult, but she was only sixteen. Also, it is important to note that the average age of marriage at the time was not so different from today. But, for an arranged marriage, it didn’t really benefit her family that much. He was poorer than the Sanson family, and he took none of her brothers as apprentices. They had one daughter: Marie-Madeleine Geneviève Hérisson, born in 1762, when her mother was 24 years old. She herself married in 1779 to her own uncle Louis-Cyr-Charlemagne Sanson. Now, why Madeleine was married to this Pierre Hérisson, the most likely explanation to me was that her family wanted to put her out of the reach of her father’s rivals (who was handicapped at the time), who may or may not be the most scrupulous in the means to achieve their end. They were a case were the rival of an executioner beat his rival’s children in an attempt to provoque them into doing something illegal. She died in 1779, age 41.

The second child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and his first wife Madeleine Transon was Charles-Henri Sanson, born in Febuary 1739. He and he sister lost their mother the following year. At around age of 10, he was sent to a boarding school in Rouen. The boy seemed to enjoy himself there (I do have my doubts on the subject) until in 1753, his identity was recognized. He was expelled. His father tried to sent him to another school, but it didn’t last long (maximum a few months). Then, he studied at home under an certain abbé Grisel as a tutor. He also began to assist his father full time as oposed to seasonally and very occasionally. He quickly gained the reputation for being extremely clumsy on the scaffold. In winter 1754/1755 , his father was hit by a stroke, leaving his clumsy 15 year old son as his replacement. To be fair, the techniques taught by Jean-Baptiste required a lot of cordination, which his eldest son lacked. It went...not this well. In 1757, he proceeded to the quartering of Damien. He was still kind of clumsy on the job until his fourties. In the mean-time, in 1766, he married Marie-Anne Jugier after a history of scandalous affairs with loose women and men, for that matter. There was also rumors about him continuing to have affairs with aristocrates even after his marriage. He officially became executioner in 1778, a few weeks before the death of his father. (Mind you, at the time, Jean-Baptiste was severely handicapped and couldn’t harm a fly.) His wife gave him two sons (Henri, born in 1767 and Gabriel born in 1769) (the existance of the second is debated by historians), and potencially a daughter (who may or may not have existed, simply was not his daughter). When the Revolution hit, Charles-Henri was an advocate of the guillotine, for practical and humanitarian reasons. In 1792, a tragedy hit the family: the accidental death of Gabriel by a particularly clumsy incident. The Revolution had slowly eaten away at M. Sanson’s sanity, due to the sheer number of executions (the Royal family, the Terreur and many victims of political intrigue, including one of his ex-lovers, Madame Dubarry). The execution of a certain Cécile Renault, along with fiftie other people (chosen specifically for their innocence), for attempted murder of Robespierre, in an attempt to descridit him, really drived Sanson over the edge. Cécile Renault was very child-like, both in terms of looks, intellect and personality, which could have struck his more parental cord. He eventually quitted his job in 1795, due to a nephretic colic. He died in 1806, after seeing his two grand-children and spending the last decade of his life in physical and mental .

The third child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and the first child of his second wife Jeanne Gabrielle Berger was Louis-Charles-Martin Sanson, born in 1744. He is in my eyes, the least sympathetic of this brotherhood. Little is known about his youth exept that he served as an assistant to his half-brother until 1768, were he became executioner of Tour, and later Auxerre. He married his second wife in 1787, who was quite an agressive woman and the brother of an volunteering executioner. Unlike his brothers, Louis-Martin led a politically active career were he joined an extremist revolutionary tribunal in Tour, at the expense of his primary duties, causing a lot of butched executions. When he was (finally) arrested for his professional faillings and his sympathy for Hébert, his wife defended him quite wildly, and ended up reclaiming the head of a high placed man named Chalmel. He also got a post somewere in the South of France. It didn’t turn too well for him, since the prejudice against his profession was much stronger in the Midi. Instead of telling like an intelligent problem that he had trouble getting in and out of his house, he invented some story about being alergic to the Meditteranian climate. Naturally, it wasn’t believed. He died in 1817, leaving behind his wife and his adult son.

The fourth child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and the second child of his second wife Jeanne Gabrielle Berger was Nicolas-Charles-Gabriel Sanson II (he had an uncle of the same name), born in 1745. He became an assistant to his brother until 1765, were he became executioner of Versailles as a replacement of his uncle of the same name. He gave this office to his older brother Charles-Henri in 1778, to take the post of questionnaire of Paris, in succession to a mysterious, not quite alive Jean-Baptiste Barré. He remained in this place until the abolition of judicial torture by Louis XVI in 1780. He kept assisting his older brother until he obtained the post of Blois in 1795, then Montpellier. He married during this year a certain Anne Françoise, devoid of surname, widow of François Fromentut. Nicolas-Charles was unable to keep any post long due to his love of the bottle. He died in 1800, of one too many alcohol poisonings.

The fifth child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and third child of his second wife, Jeanne Gabrielle Berger was Louis-Cyr-Charlemagne Sanson, born in 1748. He was famous in his life for two things, one being the husband of his own niece and two, his diplomatic activities during the French Revolution. He began assisting his older brother Charles-Henri in 1760 at the age of 12. Although, how and why he was kept around his incompetent's older brother who routinely faced the risk of being lynched is frankly beyond me, especially given the fact he had a competant and adult brother-in-law. He became executioner of Provins in 1768, age of 20. In 1779, he married his own niece, who was 17 at the time, maybe during his sister’s funeral, at age 37. He became a widower in 1784, and eventually remarried a certain Marie Fare Gendron in 1792. It is more towards the Revolution that his life became...interesting. And by interesting, I mean dangerous. He became executioner of Versailles in 1790, after his post was abolished. Fearing for the future of his profession, he along with his half-brother, became the representatives of their social class, constantly doing a moutain of paper work to insure the future of themselves and their colleagues, and preferably, prevent the nomination of sadistic individuals. In the 10th of August 1792, he was imprisonned as a suspected royalist, along with two of his brothers. They were all released but he was imprisonned again at the prison of Abbaye, only to get out two days before the Septembre Massacres. After his release, he was buzier than ever before. He died in 1794, leaving behind his adult son and grand-children in abject poverty, without saving their reputation.

The sixth child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and fourth child of his second wife Jeanne Gabrielle Berger was Marie-Josephe Sanson, born in 1751. In 1773, she married her first cousin Jean-Louis Sanson at the age of 22, who was competant on the scaffold but bad at paper work. She became a widow in 1794 and became a washer woman until her death in 1813. She would be one of the rare members of the family to eventually get out of infamy on her own merits.

The seventh child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and fifth child of his second wife Jeanne Gabrielle Berger was Pierre-Charles, born in 1753. We don’t know when he died. He assisted his older brother Charles-Henri, then went to live in Eastern France as a riffleur, leading a discreet, lonely and honest life until his death.

The eighth child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and sixth his second wife Jeanne-Gabriel Berger was Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Sanson, born in 1754 and who died young.

The nineth child of Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sanson and seventh his second wife was Joseph-Claude Sanson, born in 1757 and who died at the young age of 22 in 1779, age 22, no spouse, no children, no charge.

Gabrielle Sanson, youngest of the bunch, was born probably a year later. She probably died as an infant.

Sources:

DESMOREST, Michel et Danielle, “Dictionnaire historique et philosophique des bourreaux”

DELARUE, Jacques, “Le métier de bourreau, du Moyen Âge à aujourd’hui”

ARMAND, Frédéric, “Les bourreaux de France, du Moyen Âge à l’abolition de la peine de mort.”

MARCHAL, Gilles, “Bourreaux de Travail”

http://racineshistoire.free.fr/DOC/PDF/Dynasties-de-Bourreaux.pdf

My history of the Renaissance course

The channel “Revue du monde”, a historical vulgarisation channel.

Also, this family tree website: https://gw.geneanet.org/geneavendeemili?lang=en&n=sanson&oc=0&p=madeleine+claude+gabrielle

https://gw.geneanet.org/antistar?lang=en&n=herisson&oc=0&p=marie+madeleine+genevieve

https://books.google.ca/books?id=6wdYK4KpO04C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=charles-henri+sanson+n%C3%A9phr%C3%A9tique&source=bl&ots=bT6lYyNh1Z&sig=ACfU3U0WSOnLIzxAmaggCtG1J7ZNHtnDcg&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGz7-RjezvAhUIQ80KHdG4AsMQ6AEwD3oECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=charles-henri%20sanson%20n%C3%A9phr%C3%A9tique&f=false

#Sanson family

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seeminglyseph · 3 years

Photo

Full Name — Rain Caliburn

Meaning of name — One of King Arthur’s swords was caliburn

Family — Lake Caliburn (brother), Parents deceased

Nicknames — Your Highness

Favourite meal — Rare Steak with baked potatoes and roasted vegetables

Favourite drink — Mulled wine

Favourite flower — Morning Glory

Birthday — August 3

Age — 24

Height — 5’10”

Gender — Male

Romantic/Sexual orientation — Pansexual

Zodiac — Leo

Patron Arcana — IV - The Emperor

Upright: The Emperor is in control of his own destiny, building his empire on a solid foundation.

Reversed: The Emperor rules over his world with an iron fist, allowing nothing to escape his grasp.

Appearance — Muscular man of average height with close cropped blue curls swept back with a type of pomade. He dresses in a lot of blue and black shades and enjoys fur and layers to keep him warm.

Languages spoken — 3

Hobbies — Social drinking, reading, work, researching and developing magical techniques

Magical abilities — A very powerful magician, trained from a very young age to be powerful and well learned in magic if nothing else.

Love Interests — He’s single folks

@arcana-echoes figured I’d include this OC too I’ll probably throw him into the mix of prompts. He’s not an Apprentice but I hope that’s okay =3

Background —

When his brother, Lake, was born he was born small and got sick very quickly and very often, being more practical minded than emotional, his parents opted to not get too attached and to try again. It took three years for their mother to conceive again, and by this point Lake had grown into a weak and fussy child, so when finally their second son was born healthy and strong they knew they’d been given a second chance and they weren’t going to squander it.

Because he was always viewed as the one who would have a future, Rain had his parents dedicated to teaching him their magical techniques and laid the burden of their legacy on his shoulders. By Rain’s perspective Lake was allowed to do whatever he wanted and was held to a much lower standard when it came to success. Rain was expected to succeed so he had to, but because Lake was expected to fail no one bothered to put any effort into him.

Quickly Rain actually began to thrive under the pressure, always being guided and given the chances he needed to succeed. He began to see the abuse that his parents enacted on Lake and decided that his parents were right about this as they were right about everything else. He decided Lake was the cause of their problems and began to cast blame as well.

When he was 16 Lake ran away from home, leaving Rain at 12 in an awkward position without a scapegoat for this first time. Somehow the problems he thought were Lake’s fault kept happening, and his parents began getting upset with him more easily. He entered his teenage years having to grapple with the idea that his parents were flawed and might have been wrong about both him and Lake. Maybe he wasn’t any better than Lake? But that would make all the things he did unjustified. It was a lot to deal with, It was something he struggled with as he grew to an adult, but just when he thought he might have come to grips with it they received notice that Lake had been killed in Vesuvia, then a couple years later his parents died in an accident.

Suddenly finding himself without his family and in charge of his life he’s developed a bit of controlling temperament as he adjusts to his life spiraling out of control.

And then his dead brother showed up with amnesia and the ex-Count of Vesuvia.

#the arcana #the arcana oc #arcana eotp #rain caliburn #background is rushed because I have plans to actually write it properly #it's a process....

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eliotquillon · 4 years

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the h.i.v.e timeline

(this is going to end up massive, so sorry in advance to all my none h.i.v.e followers).

obligatory disclaimer that while i’m trying to follow canon fairly closely here, i know i might have missed some details; this is a writeup of a google doc i made immediately after my feb reread and while i have reread books 1 and 2 since then, i haven’t had the time to double check anything from dreadnought onwards. there are also canon elements that i am deliberately ignoring/reordering, and i will make it clear that i am doing so when those details come up.

part one: student ages

currently, we only have two canon ages: raven, who is thirty-one in deadlock (or thereabouts; i’m basing this off her being 16 when she tries to kill nero and that being in the 15 years ago flashback), and otto, who we know turns thirteen just before he is sent to h.i.v.e (the specific age comes from the blurb of book one). we also know that nero taught diabolus and duncan cavendish as students, and that h.i.v.e was founded in the 1960s, which seems vague but actually gives us a lot to work with; cavendish’s records being faked implies that h.i.v.e does provide public examination results for its students, and that h.i.v.e’s entry year was deliberately chosen to parallel the english private school system (which, unlike the state system, is split into pre-prep, prep, and senior), where entry to senior school coincidentally takes place at the same age of entry to h.i.v.e

when it comes to making age estimations for students during the various points of the series, i’m making three assumptions:

1. all students in otto’s year are thirteen when they start h.i.v.e, just like otto.

2. otto turns thirteen in august 2006, making him one of the youngest students in his year, assuming the h.i.v.e school year starts in early september like most british schools. most of the ‘age’ section of this hinges off otto, because he’s the only student who is given an age and is seen celebrating a birthday.

3. the six years spent at h.i.v.e span what would be year 9-13 + the first year of university in the british system. in the american system this is grades 8-12 + the first year of university. therefore, students graduate at the age of nineteen.

h.i.v.e:

every first year alpha is thirteen.

the overlord protocol:

this is still set in first year, but is months after the events of book one. otto is still thirteen, but we can assume that, at this point, some people have turned fourteen. my money would be on wing, shelby, and possibly franz as being the older kids in their year (and therefore fourteen), but the semantics don’t really matter.

escape velocity:

this is the first book with a sizeable time skip - we see otto trying to steal the end-of-year exam for second years. this means everyone is now at least fourteen, and because (in my personal experience) late july/august birthdays aren’t very common, i’d wager that shelby, wing, laura, and franz are all fifteen; i’m excluding nigel here because i think, based off his physical description, he’s probably one of the younger kids in his year, and otto is obviously still fourteen, nearly fifteen. this is supported by raven telling otto that she was almost exactly the same age as the core four when she went on her first mission; we know from deadlock that she was sixteen, which would only be a year (max) older than the alphas at this point in time.

dreadnought:

dreadnought is set at the start of third year; we know this because the 93-percenter is specifically a third year field trip. this means that everyone, including lucy, is fifteen.

rogue:

rogue is where our perfectly constructed timeline slips, because it seemingly ages otto backwards - it is set thirteen years after we see otto being cloned in the tank, which would make otto thirteen even though he ends dreadnought at fifteen. there are multiple potential explanations for this - i favour the idea that otto is registered as older than he is biologically because he’s a clone/genius and was left at the orphanage with no birth certificate - but either way, i’m still going to say that otto is fifteen and that everyone else is a third year and either fifteen or sixteen. side note: otto’s benjamin button trick here is one of my least favourite ‘slips’ of the series and ruins what is otherwise one of my favourite entries.

zero hour:

there is a year between rogue and zero hour, meaning zero hour is set in fourth year and that otto is sixteen (and again, everyone else is either sixteen or seventeen). in my original doc, i made a note saying that apparently everyone is still in third year, but based off a quick search for ‘three’ and ‘third’ in the ebook, there’s no proof for that. lucy dies when she’s sixteen/seventeen.

aftershock:

there’s another short timeskip here, and based off the fact that this is when penny and tom join and that it’s the introduction of new security chief dekker, we can guess that this is the beginning of fifth year (incidentally, the fact that nero and raven are available at the beginning of the book to go meet joseph wright in london does appear to suggest that nero wasn’t needed to teach that day, meaning that there is some form of summer holiday at h.i.v.e). i also think it’s likely that this is fifth year because penny and tom a) had time to gain relative notoriety for their thefts and b) would’ve needed to be at least sixteen to leave school and local authority care (although tom is apparently a year or two older than otto and penny according to book one) and it being fifth year sets everyone at seventeen. seventeen is actually pretty old for the alphas to be taken to the glasshouse (raven went at age eleven), but i think it does make sense that the hunt was targeted, and not the third years on the 93 percenter; tom and penny actually had time to go to lessons pre field trip, and lucy didn’t, meaning that the 93 percenter mostly likely happens in the first few days of the school year and was organised before dekker became a member of staff, which wouldn’t have given the disciples the necessary time to plan and execute a retrieval. also, laura was obviously in fifth year and not third, making the hunt a far more attractive choice for anastasia to target.

deadlock:

deadlock is similar to rogue in that it fluffs an important timeline detail, but it’s not relevant to ages here, so i’ll revisit it later. it’s set several months after aftershock, but seeing as no other students are recruited to pad out the three left in the alpha stream and that aftershock was only set in the first month or so of the school year, i think it’s safe to assume that everyone is still in fifth year at this point, so either seventeen or eighteen. my gut feeling is that shelby, franz, and wing are all eighteen, and that’s because they’re allowed on the mission to break into the glasshouse; obviously we see them get into danger/be involved in plans before this point, but this is the first time we see nero actively sign off on them being allowed into a tactical situation with a known risk to life (and i’ve made a shitpost on this, but raven does say that nero would “have her shot” if she brought thirteen year old otto into a tactical situation back in the overlord protocol, so i think the only way nero would’ve allowed this to happen was if the remaining alpha students were all legal adults). the exception to this is otto, who would still be seventeen, but seeing as he isn’t an enrolled h.i.v.e student at the time of the mission, i don’t think nero’s no-student policy applies to him.

book nine:

obviously none of us know what’s going to happen, but i think it’s safe to say book nine will probably be set in otto’s final year, when he’s eighteen.

part two: adult ages

really, i should just be transparent and call this what it is, which is just blatant nero age speculation. while it’s implied that nero is immortal in book one, this is also literally never mentioned again, and the only physical indicator we know is that he has a streak of grey in his hair. however, i do have a bunch of info that can give some clues at how old nero really is.

1. nero taught diabolus, and is implied to have been headmaster of h.i.v.e at this time. we’re not really sure how old diabolus is, either, but seeing as he has a teenaged son and was old enough to have had a considerable career and be made head of g.l.o.v.e, he can’t be any younger than his late thirties by the time he pops up in escape velocity, and i’m guessing he’s inching towards fifty purely because he isn’t described as being particularly young when we see him in hong kong with nero 15 years before the events of deadlock. (i am, however, aware that this means nothing, because walden sucks at describing people). that means nero’s been teaching some forty years, which lines up with him co-founding h.i.v.e with his father in the 60s, and seeing as h.i.v.e is nero’s great passion project, i don’t think he could’ve been any younger than 25 when h.i.v.e opened in the original icelandic facility. basically, this tells us what we already know: nero is old as shit, and doesn’t look it.

2. the duncan cavendish thing interests me a lot more, because we see that nero actively switched cavendish from polfi to alpha. again, it was already implied that nero was headmaster from the beginning, but this shows that nero was always running the show and wasn’t just initially his father’s apprentice as deadlock almost seems to hint at.

3. nero has a doctorate. “well duh”. but again, if nero had that doctorate when he founded h.i.v.e, he has to be nearing seventy. he could’ve gotten it earlier, sure, because nero is a very intelligent man, but he’s not otto-levels of academic genius. i don’t think he could’ve been any younger than 15/16 when he got his phd.

i did say that this would be an ‘adult ages’ section, so i’ll do a bit of background on raven, the only adult with timestamps. her being thirty one in deadlock makes her twenty seven in book one (if we follow the logic of otto being seventeen in deadlock), and because i personally believe the h.i.v.e timeline starts with book 1’s publication in 2006, this means raven was born around 1979 (which, if you subscribe to the theory that raven is elena and nero’s kid, makes her born after h.i.v.e was founded, which has some interesting implications about the origins of the glasshouse).

i know we’re all in mutual agreement about the soviet training being a bullshit throwaway line that walden wrote in before deciding to make raven a major player, but i’ll do the work of disproving it anyway: if raven was born in ‘79 and she came to the glasshouse at 11, that means she started her training in 1990. the soviet union officially fell in 1991, but the berlin wall fell in 1989, and the cold war was pretty much over by the time raven came to the glasshouse thanks to gorbachev’s new policies and military cuts. there is absolutely no way that the furans were soviet-funded, or that raven was trained by the soviet government. in fact, the only feasible way raven could’ve been trained by the soviet union in, quote from book 1 here, “their cold war prime”, would be for her to have been born almost a full 20 years earlier in the early 1960s, which would’ve made her middle aged in book 1. but, like, you tried walden.

part three: overlord

the overlord incident - the one that led to the destruction of the chinese facility and inadvertantly led to wing’s birth thanks to wu zhang and xiu mei shacking up together - is probably the most crucial part of the h.i.v.e timeline. without it, number one never would’ve been corrupted, otto wouldn’t have been born/manufactured, the seed code for h.i.v.emind wouldn’t have existed, cypher never would’ve launched his assault on h.i.v.e and nero (or felt the need to come into existence at all), and, of course, overlord himself wouldn’t have been the world’s most annoying LED lightshow for five books (because book one hardly counts). but even though raven had nothing to do with the original overlord incident, she’s still strongly linked to it. i’ll explain.

the overlord incident had to have happened before raven met nero. i can’t stress that enough, and this is the conflicting detail that i mentioned in deadlock. the nero’s internal monologue in the fifteen years before flashback appears to indicate that the overlord incident hasn’t happened yet - but that can’t be true, otherwise wing wouldn’t exist.

like i’ve laid out, wing is thirteen in late august 2006, and most likely eighteen (but at least seventeen) in 2010/11, aka deadlock. this gives him an approximate birth year of 1992/3, and all roads lead back to raven, who would’ve been fourteen when wing was born. already, that makes her too young to have met nero pre-overlord incident. but even more importantly, wu zhang and xiu mei only ended up together because of the overlord incident. like i said, if it weren’t for overlord, wing would not exist. we don’t know when wu zhang and xiu mei‘s friendship turned to romance, but if xiu mei got pregnant in 1992 (which fits with either of wing’s birth years - either he’s late ‘92 or early ‘93), i’d wager they got together in 1991 at the latest. raven would’ve been twelve.

i’m putting the overlord incident at a tentative year 1990, which would’ve allowed plenty of time for xiu mei and wu zhang to escape china together and fall in love before wing’s birth, and also gives overlord a handful of years to start corrupting number one to convince him into cloning himself to make otto (who was dropped off at the orphange in august ‘93). raven came to the glasshouse in 1990. there is absolutely no way she could’ve met nero while he was still making arrangements for overlord, unless wing was born after 1995 when raven tried to kill nero, in which case wing wouldn’t have been at h.i.v.e at the same time as shelby and laura (and nor would otto, come to think of it).

anyway, i’ll do a tl;dr with the final timeline below.

TL;DR (final timeline)

1960s: h.i.v.e is founded.

1979: raven is born.

1980s: both duncan cavendish and diabolus darkdoom presumably attend h.i.v.e during this period. the zero hour contingency plan is drawn up.

1990: overlord is created in a lab in northern china, and is destroyed by number one. it then takes up host in his body. there are three named survivors: nero, wu zhang, and xiu mei. raven is sent to the glasshouse.

1991: wu zhang and xiu mei move to japan and rename themselves as the fanchus. they fall in love around this point. this is also the year where raven tries to escape from the glasshouse and claws out pietor’s eye.

1992: overlord/number one starts work on cloning himself. xiu mei falls pregnant, and possibly gives birth.

1993: otto, shelby, wing, nigel, franz, laura and lucy are all born at varying points throughout the year. this is most likely also the year where dimitri is shot by anastasia furan, and raven is forced to murder tolya.

1994: presumably the year when h.i.v.e’s original location is compromised, and plans start being made to relocate from the icelandic facility.

1995: nero meets with the architect/his father to discuss his plans for the new h.i.v.e facility. raven tries to kill him. the first glasshouse burns.

1996-2005: construction on h.i.v.e 2.0 is completed. overlord slowly takes over more and more of number one’s body. survivors of the overlord incident start disappearing. xiu mei dies of unknown causes. nero receives his half of the amulet. lucy’s parents die of natural causes and she is sent to italy. gregori leonov’s son, yuri, attends h.i.v.e and graduates. cypher pops into existence around this time. diabolus darkdooms fakes his death.

2006: otto, wing, laura, shelby, franz, and nigel start attending h.i.v.e (cue the events of book one). duncan cavendish becomes prime minister.

2007: cypher launches his assult on nero after successfully convincing the contessa to join his cause. after cypher is captured and his identity is revealed, nero keeps him alive unbeknownst to number one. by august, everyone is fourteen.

2008: cue the events of escape velocity. number one and the contessa die. diabolus darkdoom is elected leader of g.l.o.v.e. cue the events of interception point. otto turns fifteen. lucy joins h.i.v.e at the beginning of september and the events of dreadnought take place. otto does not return to h.i.v.e.

2009: events of rogue. cypher and pietor furan die. otto turns sixteen at the end of august. laura’s baby brother, douglas, is conceived.

2010: douglas is born. the events of zero hour occur. lucy dies. overlord is destroyed. nero becomes leader of g.l.o.v.e and fires the ruling council. duncan cavendish steps down. construction of the new glasshouse is completed. otto turns seventeen. penny and tom join h.i.v.e. the events of aftershock occur, and otto is expelled.

2011: the events of deadlock occur. raven turns thirty one. tom dies. the new glasshouse is destroyed. the countdown for the disciples’ new batch of clones begins at 99 days. the artemis project discover the existence of h.i.v.e. at the end of year, otto is eighteen.

2012 onwards: otto turns nineteen and hopefully graduates h.i.v.e.

#h.i.v.e #otto malpense #the overlord protocol #escape velocity #deadlock #rogue #zero hour #aftershock #long post

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yeonchi · 4 years

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Kisekae Insights #13: Sea Princesses Part 3 (Moushouden Series History)

(Art by Minake, DiscordingChaos, Ryu-yaoista, Necrolyzer92 and sagiturn)

Over the course of reviewing the Sea Princesses series, some mysteries have come up – would the Drylander boy ever meet the Salacians again, was that Drylander girl actually a descendant of the Barracuda Royal Family, could Marcela actually be Marcello’s sister, what’s the deal with Duante and what would become of the princes and princesses 10-15 years after the events of the series? The last mystery is obvious given the topic of this instalment, but I’ll be answering those mysteries by telling you about the Sea Princesses’ involvement in the Moushouden Series.

I was hoping that those mysteries would be answered during my reviews of the Princesas do Mar books, but to be honest, I’m kind of glad that they weren’t, otherwise my headcanons would have been ruined.

A funny thing about the cover image for this instalment – I wanted to use fanarts that showed the Sea Princesses as adults to signify their age in the Moushouden Series (approx. 20-22 in 2018), but since I couldn’t find a decent fanart for Tubarina (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, good Sea Princesses fanart is hard to find), I decided to use a fairly decent one with Marli instead. Anyway, let’s jump right into it.

The storylines covered in this instalment include several episodes of Kamen Rider Decade in 2018, along with a few episodes of Soulbound Series 3 and 4, broadcast in 2019 and 2021. However, some context is required in order to understand those storylines.

(Art by Rainbow’s Network)

The Marcello/Marcela discrepancy

If you’ve watched Sea Princesses (the cartoon series, that is), you will know that there is a character named Marcello, who is the Hammerhead Shark Prince and Tubarina’s cousin. Not many people know about this, but in the books, there is a character named Marcela, who is the Hammerhead Shark Princess and Tubarina’s cousin.

Getting the picture here? Marcello is an exclusive character to the cartoon series (and one literacy series book) while Marcela is an exclusive character to the main series books. The only difference is that while Marcello is a regular character who has appeared in nearly half the series, Marcela is the equivalent of a background character who was only shown on one page of the first book. I was disappointed with the latter as I was hoping to see Marcela have a prominent role in the books.

Marcello is a bit of a wild boy who likes to tease girls and cause trouble, while Marcela is an intelligent girl who is calm and religious. Is it possible for those two to exist together? Hell yes. You can imagine the kind of sass that happens between those two (kind of like Morty and Morticia, but I digress).

Now, as Rainbow has kindly highlighted in her post, Marcello and Marcela are not twins because their ages and zodiac signs are different; Marcello is 8 years old and a Cancer, while Marcela is 7 years old and a Virgo. Here are their birthday time windows:

Marcello: 22 June – 22 July 1996

Marcela: 23 August – 21 September 1997

Assuming a typical pregnancy period of 40 weeks, I can conclude that it would be possible for both Marcello and Marcela to exist, even though the time period between pregnancies would be a bit quicker than six months, the minimum recommended time quoted by some studies (other studies have recommended 18 months, which is really saying something).

Marcela didn’t make her debut in the project until 2018, so what happened to her before then? In 2000, during the second Battle of Kawanakajima, Marcela was accidentally sent to a parallel universe when the Master attempted to open a portal between Salacia and Dryland. In the parallel universe, she was found by an Oni Rider named Hibiki (played by Yuki Kubota), who raised and trained her as his apprentice so that she could take on her master’s name and become an Oni like himself.

When the Beta Uprising threatened their world in 2018, Hibiki passed down his equipment to Marcela and give her instructions to protect a boy, Yuki Yamaki, from the Chads. Sure enough, Marcela managed to save the boy, but Marcela was kidnapped by the Stacies and brainwashed to fight Yuki, who the Chads had other plans for before he managed to escape them. Hiroki became involved as Decade and after he destroyed that universe, Yuki and Marcela were dragged into Hiroki’s universe.

Hiroki and Narutaki (they were allies by that point in the story) left Yuki and Marcela about five months back in time. They had no memories of what happened in the Beta Uprising (due to their future selves being present), but the only thing they remembered was that they were enemies; Yuki blamed Marcela for killing his lover and destroying his world, while Marcela blamed Yuki for killing her family. Every time they met, they would fight until one of them was defeated or told the truth.

Later, the past Narutaki found Marcela and used her as a pawn to fight the past Hiroki. Hiroki managed to convince Yuki not to kill the only person who might know the truth about what happened and so, they defeated Marcela and broke her brainwashing, leaving her with no recollection of what happened.

The two decided to work together to find out the mysteries of their past, eventually becoming a couple in the process. In the following episode, Marcello reunited with (or rather, met) his long-lost sister, initially meeting as enemies before reconciling as siblings.

Answering the Barracuda Kingdom saga

One thing that really pissed me off in the animated series was how they didn’t provide a solution to the Barracuda Kingdom saga. The Lost Kingdom provides a good setup as the girls manage to get the barracuda to rebuild their fallen palace. The New Princess adds to that setup with the possibility of a Drylander girl being a descendant of the Barracuda Royal Family, but it only gives more questions than answers which are never picked up after that episode.

So, you want my answer to the question raised in The New Princess? Yes, the girl and her mother are in fact descendants of the Barracuda Royal Family. This would somehow explain how they were able to read Polvina’s book on the kingdom and leave a message for the girls upon leaving, assuming that the book was written in the Salacian language.

And by the way, what is the girl’s name? Her name is Windy Adams. The name Windy is an homage to the Drylander girl who is the namesake character of the book The Windy Letters.

Duante, the wandering asshole

If you’ve watched The Healer, you will probably recognise this asshole, who goes around helping animals, but doesn’t want to make friends with anyone, let alone tell anyone his name. I blame this guy for possibly taking what could have been Dinho’s only appearance in the series, even though Dinho isn’t even in the series as a background character.

Given his ability to talk to and understand every fish and animal in Salacia, we can presume that Duante was appointed by the goddess Salacia to be a secret guardian, even more secret than the blowfish in The Guardians.

Naturally, someone like him is honestly waiting for an opportunity to be used in one of my stories. Read on to the end and you’ll find out my plans for him.

In regards to the Drylander boy

Despite the Salacians’ fear, dread and hatred for the Drylanders, there have been examples of Drylanders who mean no harm to Salacia. In the books, there is A Shadow in the Water, but in the animated series, there is the Drylander boy saga.

In The Boy, the girls and Leia were helping a young beached whale when they see the boy coming onto the beach. As the boy tries to help the whale, the girls disguise themselves with seaweed in an attempt to conceal themselves from him. The boy is initially scared off, but when the girls see that he hasn’t left, they try to get him to help them with the whale. Later on, the boy has success stopping three other whales from coming onto the beach, something that Leia failed to do. Together, they get the young whale off the beach and back into the sea. The girls thank the boy and they part ways.

Off-screen, the boy tells his friends about his encounter, but they didn’t believe him, so he set out to try and get photos of them, which brings us to his appearance in The Secret Admirer. He puts some shells on some rocks in an attempt to lure out one of the princesses (presumably, he recognised them because they didn’t fully disguise themselves in their last encounter). Eventually, he manages to take a photo of Polvina, which leads her to seek out his camera. They get Tentie to distract the boy so the girls can take his camera, but he manages to take a photo of them. The flash of the camera attracts the attention of a mother shark as it was scaring her baby. She manages to rip the camera off the boy and destroy it. With the boy a long way away from shore, the girls cover him with seaweed as they help him there. They leave the boy a shell for him before they head back.

So what is the boy’s name in my project? His name is Daniel Camielez. He made a cameo during the Salacian Rebellion storyline in Three Kingdoms Series 3, where he laments the senseless violence and prays for a chance to see Polvina (and the girls) again.

Daniel’s friends still didn’t believe that he met the princesses because he had no evidence to prove that he did. When the Salacians began to rebel against the Drylanders in 2010, Daniel’s friends realised that he was right and they began helping him find them. However, the years passed and they lost interest, though Daniel never gave up hope. In 2015, the father of one of Daniel’s friends, Kelvin Galvarro, was dragged into Mirror World and devoured by the Mirror Monsters, which were created by the Shark King, alongside the Salacian Kamen Riders, to kill Drylanders that had committed crimes against their world. This reignited Kelvin’s interest to seek out the Salacians and avenge his father’s death and so, he joined Daniel in his search once again. At some point, Narutaki gave Daniel and Kelvin the Ryuki and Knight Advent Decks, allowing them to become Kamen Riders.

Now that the background context is out of the way, let’s get right into the stories.

Decade Episode 3+4: The Awakening Instinct

Zhuge Shu’s instinct was awakened when he and his family encountered an Unidentified Lifeform (Gurongi), marking the start of his metamorphosis into Agito. Normally, the Agito power would be passed down the Mermaid Royal Family bloodline, but because Zhuge Shu was half-Drylander, his power was tainted and thus, could only become Kamen Rider (Exceed) Gills, an incomplete version of Agito. Eventually, his instincts went out of control as he found himself being targeted by the Unknown (Lords), which led him to become afraid of them.

His son, Zhuge Sōta, began feeling similar effects to his father as his instinct was being awakened as well. It is revealed that if there is an imperfect Agito, then the power continues to be passed down until a perfect Agito can be found. This meant that Sōta would become Agito as he was less Drylander than his father.

At this point in the story, Narutaki had allied with Nozama Pharmaceuticals, led by a man named Kino, and the Amazon Riders. Kino can transform into Kamen Rider Another Agito and his true identity is the Paradoxa Undead. Juli and Jessi, under the surname Aquami, acted as Nozama’s directors. In the first part of the story, Narutaki confronts Hiroki as Decade while Kino, Juli and Jessi fight the Gurongi and the Ant Lords when they come in. At the end of that episode, Kino fights Decade, Kuuga, Agito and Gills following their fight with Taurus Ballista.

Following this, Zhuge Shu continued to suffer from his instincts until Narutaki gave him the Chalice Rouzer, which placed him under her control as he became the Joker Undead. In the second part of the story, Sōta used his instincts to find his father and with the help of Decade, Blade and a mysterious woman, they managed to seal the Joker’s power into a Rouse Card, allowing Zhuge Shu to regain control of himself and suppress the effects of the flawed Agito metamorphosis by making him part-Undead. From then on, Zhuge Shu would fight as Kamen Rider Chalice.

The mysterious woman was revealed to be Serena, the Mermaid Princess and Zhuge Shu’s mother. It turned out that she fell into a coma after being “killed” by the Shark King and was rescued by a local family, who took care of her for a few years. Eventually, the search for her son led her to BOARD, who agreed to assist her.

Decade Episode 7: Displaced Spirits

Hiroki, Kayley and Firerose are in Cardiff Bay when Narutaki summons hordes of witches, Makamou and Insect Army troops in the city centre. Yuki Yamaki sees this and is about to head to the scene, but Marcela confronts him and they fight. Hiroki, Kayley and Firerose transform and attempt to break the fight up, only for the two Riders to escape.

As Decade chases after Magica and Hibiki, Marli and Maurico’s Oni Rider factions emerge from the River Taff. While they confront and fight Kabuto and Gatack, Narutaki transforms into Duke and confronts Decade just as he defeats Hibiki and Magica. Duke finishes off Magica with the Sonic Arrow and kills Decade by using Hibiki’s Final Form Ride, but not before Narutaki reveals the details of Marcela’s past to Hiroki in an “omae wa mou shindeiru” moment. However, once Duke and Hibiki retreat, Yuki discovers that the power of his Soul Gem can resurrect Hiroki – this is because Hiroki used to have the same magical boy powers Yuki did until he lost them following his final regeneration.

Later, once Hiroki, Yuki, Kayley and Firerose hear that Narutaki and the Oni Riders are fighting the police and military in Pontcanna, they head there to fight them. Decade uses the Magica Final Form Ride card to unlock Magica’s final form before they work together to defeat Narutaki’s army. Narutaki and her comrades retreat while Marcela loses her memories of what happened.

Decade Episode 8: The Searching Boy

Obviously, this episode was named after the Sea Princesses episode The Boy.

In Santos, Kayley meets Kelvin Galvarro, who tells her about the Salacian Riders and the Mirror Monsters. He and Daniel hear mirror noises (yeah, we’re calling it that) and they enter Mirror World to fight, with Kayley transforming into Diend and following them in as well.

Meanwhile, in another part of Santos, Firerose is pulled into a mirror by a Dispider and Hiroki transforms to save him. After Decade and Kuuga defeat the Dispider, they are surrounded by the Shark King’s Riders, Mirror Monsters and Salacian Army troops. Ryuki, Knight and Diend arrive to save them and take them back to Kelvin’s apartment. Hiroki calls in a favour from the Octonauts so he and the others can investigate what is going on in Salacia. They are also joined by Yuki and Marcela.

At the end of the Next Gen Series, the Kōmeikyō disbanded and everyone reaffirmed their loyalty to the goddess Salacia. As Narutaki and Lorah are overseeing the training of the other Salacian Riders, the Octopod approaches Lorah’s castle and Narutaki challenges Hiroki to battle. While Hiroki transforms into Decade, Narutaki uses her EFTPOS Gunmorpher (an original transformation item made for this project’s version of Decade) to transform into Kamen Rider Gold Drive. Since Gold Drive can use Rider Cards like Decade and Diend, she is able to withstand Decade’s attacks. After more Riders join the fight, Gold Drive has Agostinha and Squid Girl turn down the signal’s strength, causing Decade and Kuuga to begin drowning. Decade manages to escape back to the Octopod using the Kuuga Gouram.

It is then that Narutaki and Lorah decide to begin their invasion. On top of a building on Dryland, the goddess Salacia transforms into Kamen Rider Saga and causes a time slowdown. Hiroki, Kayley and Firerose are immune from its effects due to the Shift Cars and Signal Bike they possess (thanks to Krim Steinbelt). As the Salacian Riders pass the Octopod, Daniel locks eyes with Polvina while Marcela locks eyes with Marcello.

When the Octopod crashes onto the beach, Hiroki gives his Signal Bike to Daniel as he and Kayley attempt to stop the slowdown. Ryuki finds Saga on top of a building and uses Dragreder to knock her down, causing the slowdown to stop. A battle ensues as seven Riders (Decade, Diend, Kuuga, Ryuki, Knight, Magica and Hibiki) face off against the entire Salacian Army, which includes Gold Drive and 33 Salacian Riders. Odin attempts to entice Decade with the Time Vent card so he can change the past however he wishes, but Decade refuses, saying that there are many people he wouldn’t have met had his life not gone down the way it had. After the Riders eliminate the Mirror Monsters and Salacian Army troops, Decade uses Ryuki’s Final Form Ride to transform Dragreder into Dragranzer without Ryuki using Survive Form. Dragranzer defeats all the Contract Monsters before Decade uses Ryuki’s Final Attack Ride to perform an attack similar to the Dragon Fire Storm alongside Ryuki.

It is then that Narutaki reveals Lorah, Tata, Hugo, Salacia and Firerose’s friend (who was featured in episodes 3+4 but not in this episode until this point) as Roidmudes along with her plan for the Global Freeze before retreating. The Shark King finally accepts the prospect of working with the Drylanders to protect the ocean. Daniel gives Polvina a flower and she gives him a shell, while Marcello offers to reunite Marcela with her family.

In the rest of Decade

The 13 Ryuki Riders make an appearance in episode 9, where they help fight the Roidmudes as Decade, Drive and their comrades deal with Gold Drive and stop the Global Freeze.

In the Gokaiger vs. Decade crossover special, the Salacian Riders are shown fighting various Ranger teams before they work together to fight the villain of the special (who is also the villain of the Decade TV movie).

Ryuki, Magica and Hibiki are featured in the series finale two-parter. Yuki and Marcela (along with Zhuge Qiao) attempt to convince Narutaki to leave this world as they believed that travels are causing the black hole paradox to worsen (she is actually taking Decade’s place in the episode as Hiroki went off to explore somewhere before he became the Destroyer of Worlds). Later on, Ryuki and Blade are shown fighting Decade Violent Emotion (just like in Movie War 2010).

In Age of Riders Ultimax, the Salacian Riders join Decade, Diend, Kuuga and Gold Drive as they are sent to a world ravaged by the Beta Uprising. There, they learn the circumstances of Yuki and Marcela’s past before returning to their world, where Hiroki and Narutaki take their past selves back in time. At the end of the movie, the Salacians sign a peace treaty with the Drylanders. By this point, Yuki and Marcela have become a couple.

Soulbound Series 3: Dark Sea Princess

The Sea Princesses had a tribute two-parter in Arc 11, shared with the tributes for Madoka Magica and some other series. Before that, however, the Shark, Starfish and Octopus Kings appeared in a tribute episode in Arc 4 way back in Series 1. It was shared with the tribute for Angelina Ballerina and it showed the fifth Battle of Kawanakajima in 2009. They didn’t do much though; the three kings led their troops to attack the Takeda camp, then they retreated when the Yellow Monkey of the Freaky Monkey Five intruded in the battle as they refused to work with the Drylanders.

In the two-parter, Yuki and Marcela are shown living in seclusion from humanity as the rejected beings of their universe (in reference to their backstories). In addition to fighting Horrors, witches, wraiths and rumours, they are also the temporary hosts of Ultraman Gaia and Agul. Also, as stated in Part 1, six new Riders make their debut in this series, including Miss Marla (Amazon New Alpha) and Zhuge Shu’s mother, Serena (Banki).

When the Salacian Riders attack Drylanders on the beach, Torchwood Pleiades (made up of magical girls) arrives to fight them. The main characters of Soulbound, namely the Barrier Base and SEPTAN crews, arrive to fight the Salacian Riders, but Takumi Kamijō and Homura Akemi intrude in the battle, challenging each other to see who can defeat the most warriors (the two had been fighting other magical girls throughout the episode).

In the second part of the two-parter, there is a very big battle where Takumi and Homura fight the Salacian Riders, the Soulbound characters and the Magia Record characters (up to the end of October 2019). The magical boy and girl are so strong that not even the Riders in their final forms can make a scratch on them. The battle causes negative emotions and minus energy to collect in the sky; Kyubey uses it to provide energy for the universe while the byproducts form into a giant monster named Kanaderos. Yuki, Marcela and Hikaru Tomokaze transform into their respective Ultramen and defeat the monster.

The Salacian Riders are also featured in the final episodes of the series (Arc 12), where they play minor roles in the battles.

Soulbound Series 4: The Aqua Conspiracy and the Poseidon Myth

In Soulbound Series 3, I wrote that while Windy Adams, the Drylander girl from The New Princess, and her marine archaeologist mother, were the descendants of the Barracuda Royal Family, their whole family was killed by Dai-Shocker around the end of Decade. At the time, I couldn’t think of anything to write for her and I didn’t want to bother; I could have disregarded them or said that the girl wasn’t a descendant, but I honestly wanted to give an answer to that mystery.

However, plans changed while I was writing Soulbound Series 4. I decided to give Windy her name and write a story for both her and Duante. At the time of writing this instalment, I have barely gotten halfway into the first episode of a two-parter detailing the story; I had decided to take a break at the end of August to focus on some side projects. Since I decided to delay the premiere of this series as well due to the coronavirus lockdown, I’ll share some details of what I have planned just as a sneak peek. Revealing stories before their release isn’t something that writers normally do, but since this is just my project, what the hell.

While her family was killed by Dai-Shocker, Windy had managed to survive when she was possessed by a Greeed named Poseidon, who was formed in the new Core Medals that the Kougami Foundation were developing when they reacted to a black hole paradox.

From that point on, Windy would become Kamen Rider Poseidon. Her attacks across the land would attract the attention of Duante, who was fighting as Kamen Rider Aqua. The goddess Salacia met Hiroki at Itsukushima Shrine (dressed as a shrine maiden) and asks him for help finding her two lost children, namely Windy and Duante.

That is really all I have for now, though I will share one tidbit which is unrelated to Sea Princesses, but related to the two-parter. Kamen Rider OOO will also be featured in the two-parter along with the Kougami Foundation Riders. Aside from using the new Combos of the CSM OOO Driver, he will also use an original Combo made from existing medals. This original combo is the Yadopangaru Combo, made by using the Yadokari (Hermit Crab), Panda and Kangaroo Core Medals. OOO can retract his head to dodge attacks, use the panda claws to attack and do pogo-like hops with the kangaroo legs. Its Scanning Charge finisher, Telescopic Crush, allows OOO to retract himself as small as possible before leaping very high into the air and performing a fast and heavy Rider Kick.

This marks the end of six months of Sea Princesses content on my Tumblr. It’s pretty amazing how much I put into and got out of a series that received little reception over the years. I’m probably the only fan of the series who has been able to achieve that much.

I’ve said before that I have plans to adapt Kamen Rider Zi-O next year and I will tell you now that the Sea Princesses will be featured in a few episodes. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now, this has been the involvement of Sea Princesses in my personal project.

#kisekae insights #sea princesses #princesas do mar #kamen rider #kamen rider decade #soulbound #princesas del mar #el reino de acuatica

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shiftyskip · 5 years

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Wayne A. “Skinny” Sisk

The Real Skinny Sisk:

Wayne Aubrey Sisk was born March 4, 1922 to Henry Sisk and Nettie Monk Sisk in Herdon, West Virginia. He had several siblings.The oldest was Lumer, who when Skinny was born was about 20 years older than him. After that the rest were (from second oldest to younger): Boyd, Virginia Pearlie, Gretchen, Eloise, Roy, Delcie, Lannie, Raymond. When he was only 7 or 8, his father died on April 5, 1930. Somewhere along that time, Skinny was not living with his mother, only Pearlie and Dewaine were. I do not know where he went during that time, but he and Pearlie were living with his mother by 1940.

Skinny before the war was employed with Wadsons World Fair. His enlistment card says that his occupation was an apprentice to construction and/or hand trades. He enlisted in August 15, 1942 at Fort Thomas in Newport, Kentucky. He also states that he has a scar over his eye. I am not sure how he got that either.

Skinny was one of the first men to enter Easy Company. He was one of the first Privates in Easy Company at Camp Tocco. Winters said, “To win over the girls in the 1940s, Sisk used his smile, wit, and the glamour of being a paratrooper.” Even though he trained under Sobel, Skinny had some fun along the route. One day, on furlough, Skinny was arrested by the military police for making out with his girlfriend near the train tracks. When Sobel asked to Skinny to explain himself, Sisk said: “The train was coming, she was coming, and so was I.” iN Another version by Shames, Skinny and his girlfriend were...being intimate...on the tracks. (Author’s Note: OH MY GOD. NO.) The driver had to emergency stop the train and called the police. In court, Shames said that Skinny said, “Well, sir, she was cummin’, I was cummin’ and the only one who had any control over the brakes was the damned engine driver.”

That’s probably the correct version...

According to Shames, Skinny was the craziest man he’d ever met.

During April of 1943. Van Klinken and Skinny spent some time in the hospital. When they got out of the hospital and were resting in the barracks, they got drunk for three days. One the last night they drank 3 quarts and couldn’t even stand up.

Skinny was still with Easy when they jumped into Normandy. He was in the plane with Guth, Smokey Gordon, Floyd Talbert, Francis Mellet, Ed Tipper, Campbell Smith, and John Eubanks who were engaged in a soldier’s favorite pastime: bitching about equipment. Skinny broke the eventual tension in the plane by yelling out: “Does anyone want to buy a good watch.”

When walking to Carentan, everyone stepped over a dead German, who had his arm raised in the air. But Skinny reached out and shook his hand, while stepping on the dead German. The dead German made a noise and Skinny whispered, “Sorry, buddy.”

In Foy, on New Year’s Day, H company spotted unidentified American troops drawing from a well in Foy, while it was risky both sides used this well. The unidentified troops sparked concern and Shames’ group was ordered to move west. Shames’ patrol included Moe Alley, Strohl, and Sisk and they moved during the night, to give them more cover to move around. Shames’ patrol moved along a slope that overlooked the well. After hours, a man’s figure appeared near the well, coming from Foy, a German. Shames and Skinny moved near him, Skinny making it very clear he’d cut the guy’s throat if he made a sound. Skinny scared the guy to death and his rage only grew when her found out the German was wearing an American uniform. They took the German prisoner instead. He’d been from America and had lived there before the war, spoke English. He gave them no other information. Under unclear, “extreme physical”, the German soldier caved and gave them information and location of his other team member.

Shames and Skinny were ordered to stake out the location (a house) for a few days. They brought Ed Stein with them. On the second night, they managed to get into the house, using Stein’s knowledge of German. Shames tricked them into thinking they were a German patrol before they figured out they’d been tricked. Shames took their weapons and took them back to the Bois Jacques. It was just getting light when the Germans started speaking to each other. Shames told them to shut the hell up and they didn’t. So when they refused to give information, Shames had him kneel in front of the other soldiers and shot him in the head.

In Austria, Easy Company’s beloved Speirs, was made aware of the German SS officer, the leader of a concentration camp, had escaped and was living in the hills nearby. Ron Speirs sent a group to go out and kill him. This group included Lynch, Liebgott, Moone, and Sisk. (NOT WEBSTER - that was a Tom Hanks and Spielberg addition). Moone was conflicted the entire way on if Speirs had enough authority to give this order. They found the man, interrogated him, and Liebgott shot the man twice. The man turned and ran. Moone refused to shoot him, “The war’s over.” Skinny instead raised his fun and shot him, killing him.

The war ended and Skinny returned home where he continued to live near Raleigh and Wyoming, West Virginia. He became a building contractor and stone masonry.

Skinny was haunted by the war for a very long time. As he wrote to Winters in 1991,

“My career after the word was trying to drink with the truck load of Krauts hat I stopped in Holland in the diehard not see that I went into the Bavarian Alps and killed. Old Moe Alley made a statement that all the killings that I did was going to jump into the bed with me one of these days and they surely did. I had a lot of flashbacks after the war and I started drinking. Ha! Ha!

“Then my sister little daughter, four-years-old, came into my bed room (I was too unbearable to the rest of my family, either hung over or drunk) and she told me that Jesus loves me And she love me and if I would repent God would forgive me for all the man I kept trying to kill all over again. That little girl got me to put her out of my room, told her to go down to her mommy. There in then I bowed my head on my mothers old featherbed and repented and God forgive me for the war and all other bad things I had done down through the years. I was ordained in the latter part of 1949 into the ministry and believe me, Dick, I haven’t whipped but one man since and he needed it. I have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The lord willing and Jesus tarrys I hope to see you all at the next reunion. If not I’ll see you at the last jump. I know you won’t freeze in the door.”

Skinny got married to Jane Louise Rufus, called Louise in March 15 1946, under a year after the war. She was 19, he was 24. After a time, I assume after he died, she remarried and became Jane Louise Sisk Kester.

They had four kids together: Delcie Lynn was born August 8, 1950. Roy Paris was born in 1951. Roy would eventually marry when he was 16 and his bride was 15. They also had Wayne Aubrey Sisk Jr. and Sharon.

He was an ordained Minister and attend Skelton Freewill Baptist Church. He also was a member of Beckley Confrence of Freewill Baptist’s and the West Virginia State Association of Freewill Baptists.

He had won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart during the war and survived till the end with Easy Company.

By the end of his days, he had: 4 granddaughters- Melissa, Laura, Amelia, and Sara, 4 grandsons- Jeffrey, M. Shane, Matthew, and Chad. He had one great-granddaughter, Ashley, and one great-grandson, Micah.

Skinny died July 13, 1999, at a hospital after a long sickness in Charleston, Virginia.

#band of brothers #profiles #real life band of brothers #real band of brothers #skinny sisk #wayne sisk

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rezares · 5 years

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Reza Kasraoui-Müller Five* (8) Identities

*five identities he claims, two he doesn’t acknowledge, and one he is struggling to

Word Count: 1366

Father - In late 2009, an agreement was made between a sorcerer and a fairy, to conceive a child. The fairy and the sorcerer had slept together before, but were always nothing more than ‘allies with benefits.’ But the fairy wanted a child. A child, but not a husband. The sorcerer wanted neither but agreed to supply the other half of the DNA for the child. As the fairy’s pregnancy progressed, however, the sorcerer realized he couldn’t just have a child in this world and not be involved, so the arrangement was modified to be a co-parenting situation between two people that are not, never were, and would never be in love.

On August 27th, 2010, Sabiha Ibitsam Ghadir Basira bint Reza Kasraoui was born in Hammamet, Nabeul Governorate, Tunisia. Reza’s life revolved around her from the moment she took her first breath. Her mother, a fairy named Rafika, had to practically pry her from his arms to nurse her.

Sabiha is Reza’s greatest joy and he cannot imagine ever being separated from her again. To Reza, being a father - Sabiha’s father - is his whole reason for living. Before he is anything else, he is that wonderful little girl’s father.

Sorcerer/Magick - It’s predicted for this to be in the number two spot, but I actually struggled whether or not to place this here. Because frankly Reza feels disconnected from the experiences of most sorcerers around him - currently. I think...Reza himself would more closely identify with ‘magick’, and with pan-magickal struggles and social justice.

Like...Reza probably has more in common as far as lived experiences, with a British werewolf than a British sorcerer. Because British werewolves and Tunisian sorcerers are both heavily discriminated against. Magic is illegal in his home country, he’s been put in jail and denied housing and work for being a sorcerer. British sorcerers, while inconvenienced by restrictions and regulations, simply do not face a comparable level of stigma to sorcerers in Tunisia.

Reza would probably say that prior to living in Austria and now Swynlake, he would have identified more strongly with “sorcerer” as not just a label, but an entire piece of his identity. Tunisian sorcerer culture is rich, complex, and really forges a community. It means something very specific to be a sorcerer from North Africa. Now in Europe, he doesn’t as strongly identify as a sorcerer. At least, he doesn’t...think of himself as part of a community of any sort that would also specifically include say, Howl, Hera, or the Qin sisters.

In Swynlake, Reza feels more connected to this abstract pan-magick identity. He feels closer to Hades than to any sorcerers here other than his sisters and his apprentice, Aurora.

Activist - Reza, before anything other than being Sabiha’s father and being a sorcerer, identifies strongly with being an activist for magick rights. His pen name for pro-magick writing, Ares, the god of war, was a fitting alias.

It isn’t just magick rights, though. During the Arab Spring, Reza was heavily active locally in the movement that ultimately toppled the Ben Ali dictatorship. He cares a lot about social justice and in every society he lives in, whether Tunisia or Swynlake, he actively seeks to speak out and fight against injustices.

His activism is intersectional, no matter what continent he’s on.

Muslim - This one is interesting because of its placement on the list. I thought Muslim would be fifth, below Tunisian, but it’s not and I’ll explain why in the Tunisian blurb.

Reza is...not the strictest Muslim. He drinks alcohol and has sex outside of marriage - you know, breaks “rules” that are convenient for him like every person of faith does. But he finds comfort and community in Islam and his Muslim identity is very important to him.

As a now out magick, Reza is unable to even enter Saudi Arabia, and is therefore unable to complete his hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam. It legitimately hurts him, but he tells himself all the time “God will understand,” and make sure he gives to charity more than is simply required by Islam.

Tunisian - The fifth most important identity of Reza’s, is his nationality. I thought it would be higher, honestly, like maybe second or third, but as I psychoanalyzed Reza more, I realized that while it was important to him, and that he’s proud to be Tunisian...it’s number five.

Because Tunisia’s rejected him in a way. He can’t live freely in the country that he loves. He is Tunisian but Tunisia does not see him as part of her.

I thought Tunisia would be above Muslim on his list of identities, but I’ve come to find out that apart from his most important identity - as Sabiha’s father - he feels more strongly about the identities were he finds community. He finds more community in being Muslim here in Swynlake than with being Tunisian.

Demiromantic - So, honestly. Reza has never heard this word, he doesn’t know what it is. But he’s demiromantic, booooorderline aromantic. Like he’s not ace, he’s quite heterosexual, but he’s never...loved anybody. Like that. And never had a longing to.

He has the capacity to - he’s not actually aro, but he’s not able to love somebody in that way unless there’s a strong emotional attachment. Reza’s never had an attachment that strong to somebody emotionally. Even with his daughter’s mother, he wasn’t even that close friends with her, they were just a sorcerer and fairy who had mutual friends and sometimes hooked up.

He had few female friends in Tunisia that he got very close to. While attitudes toward men and women interacting are less conservative generally in magick circles, people still can raise eyebrows if single men and women act too chummy. So Reza’d only ever really had male true friends; and he’s hetero, so of course none of those strong emotional bonds turned to something deeper.

Like, he finds it odd that he’s never really had a proper “crush” on a woman, but he just writes it off as “my life up until now was fucking wild, of course I didn’t have time for that.”

Disabled - This is one Reza both isn’t fully aware of, but is also aware of and in denial. The bomb set off by anti magick extremists at a sorcerer’s wedding Reza attended that nearly killed him had left him with permanent effects.

Before the attack, Reza made most of his money as a server, bartender, fisherman, or construction worker. Even after the nearly two years of surgeries, physical therapy, and re-learning to walk again, doing these things is now impossible for him. He cannot stand up for eight, ten, thirteen hour shifts waiting tables or slinging drinks. Standing for more than a few hours at once is extremely painful. Sometimes he’ll have pain flare-ups if he’s not even doing anything.

He keeps thinking one day it’ll get better, that it’ll go away, but he’s coming to realize this isn’t going to change back to normal.

POC - This is the identity that like, Reza always was aware of, but has only recently come to understand what it fully means. I’ll explain.

Reza is a man of color...from a country populated by people of color. Of course he was aware of global white supremacy - Western European beauty standards, colorism, etc -, and he was aware that he and his sisters were a bit different than most of their neighbors, as they were half white Austrian, but like….eh. Lots of Tunisians with two Tunisian parents were lighter-skinned than Reza so.

Prior to about four years ago, when he lived in Austria for medical treatment, Reza hadn’t ever lived a racialized existence. For the first almost thirty-two years of his life, his ethnicity and Muslim faith were two things that made him blend in, not stand out.

It’s only in the last four years that Reza’s had to grapple with what it means to be a person of color in a predominantly white society -- because he’s from a society of other people of color.

#bdrptask

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cicatriselle-blog · 6 years

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Ouch.

(Also known as: here’s how piercing my nipples was a glorious act of self-care and an important step in my recovery/healing/story!)

Sooo. Hi. It’s been a while. This is going to be long and rambling.

I got my nipples pierced a month ago. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for at least five or six years. it connects to Longtime in that when I’ve expressed that previously, he never explicitly was like, “no, you can’t do that”…but he very much made clear that he did not like that idea or the look and generally all sorts of negative-nope-naysay comments. Then, with the boy (who has all sorts of piercings, including his nipples, that he’d done himself—yes, I know, sigh)…I’d talked about it with him, and he said he’d pierce my nipples for me. Luckily, that never came to pass for a variety of reasons (the boy had supposedly pierced a lot of people in high school, but had stopped), but it goes to show how much I trusted the boy and how incorrectly calibrated my good idea meter was because of that. During our situationship (thanks @thegassedlight) there was even a point where he offhandedly let me know he’d pierced [some random girl’s name I’d never heard previously]. I was like. Uh. I’m not okay that you just, did that? Without saying anything or asking or letting me know? And he was like sorry, blah blah blah. (I am pretty sure he probably did indeed, but that he did it to his now-wife.) ANYWAY. Anyway.

The boy had really emotionally abused/fucked over another girl, whom he’d introduced me to and we’d interacted with a few times, whom I’ll refer to as Red. I poured my heart out to her the night and days following The Shit, and she and I traded timelines and found out that there was even a point that he was cheating on (at least??) me, Red, and his current wife. At some point I talked about the nipple piercings, one of the many things he said he’d/we’d do and it never happened, and she shared with me that her current boyfriend is a piercer and if I wanted to get it done to just let her know. (And I loved that narrative; getting my nipples pierced by the boyfriend of another girl who (was unfortunately) emotionally destroyed by the boy, too, but who is now doing so, so much better, and is loved by someone else that’s so, so much healthier for her.)

August 16th, 2017 was significant in that it was the day I broke up with the boy. I’d written a wonderful letter to him two days prior that I’ll post in a bit, which basically said either we do this or we don’t, I’m not tolerating this shit anymore, that I’m healing with or without him. We came together on the 16th…and he told me he wanted to help me heal….but as friends. Even though we’d been fucking and acting like a couple and not even two weeks prior had gone on a romantic camping trip. Why had I written him this letter at all? After our lovely trip toward the end of July 2017, my Spidey sense was tingling again in mid-August, as it did from time to time. I hadn’t looked in a while, but something told me to go look at [his now wife]’s Instagram. She’d blocked me on there for some weird reason (I have a feeling he’d taken her phone and done so), so I opened an incognito tab and saw a picture wherein she thanked the boy for dyeing her hair so well (despite him having told me he’d cut off contact with her since earlier in the year, other than some bullshit about how she was living with his best friend [x] and that’s why asdkajdlak I can’t even go into that. But because he’d told me he wanted me, he wanted to work on us, that he was choosing this relationship and had severed the relationship with her because I told him that can’t happen if you have any contact with her). Anyway. The dyed hair thing. I can’t even remember what he said in response, that he was at a friend’s house, and that she showed up, and needed help dyeing her hair, something. It was so stupid. SO, so, so, so, stupid. I didn’t believe it then. So I wrote him this letter. I was done with him telling me bullshit. I had reached a point where I was perfectly ready for the relationship to continue, with major changes, or for the relationship to end, and that be that. But it never ONCE occurred to me that he might not want to be with me romantically. That he thought of me as just a friend. Because I certainly don’t go on romantic camping trips/do couple-y things/have sex with “just a friend.” Eye. fucking. roll.

Anyway. So another anniversary was coming up. I was feeling anxious about it. It was looming over me, as all these benchmarks seem to do for some weird reason. That whole tumblr post about anxiety being like hearing the boss music but you don’t see the boss, that sums it up. Or, like the theme from Jaws, as I said to a friend of mine recently. Foreboding. Ominous. About a week beforehand, the nipple piercings thing popped up in my mind again. I thought it over a day, and then reached out to Red. It felt like it was the right time. We talked a bit. And then I picked out the jewelry I wanted and she said she’d let her boyfriend know and that they’d arrive in the shop in about a week.

I told Red that I was intending to get them done the 16th. Work had been decent that day, but I was physically feeling weird all day, and started second-guessing myself. I had a tearful therapy session that afternoon. And then on the way home, I was like, fuck this, I’m going to fucking do it. I’m re-authoring this story. I’m replacing this day with something positive. This is the day I got my nipples pierced. Not the day the boy somehow broke my heart in a new way, not the day I remember walking away from him in the rain, not the day I expected a no but got somehow an even worse answer. I’m erasing that memory with this one; the pencil marks under it still remind me that I wrote something else first, but what I’m choosing to write instead is there now because I wanted it to be there.

Once I stopped waffling in my head, I messaged my roommate and she was happy to come along for support (who also has her nipples pierced). I went and picked up Red (WHO ALSO HAS HER NIPPLES PIERCED). Red and I have interacted several times in real life, but I finally got to meet her cat and she came over and saw my place. I packed a “don’t faint/seize/etc” bag with some mini Snickers bars and a tiny can of Mountain Dew (along with more sensible items like dark chocolate-covered almonds and crackers) and the three of us went to the shop. I was really nervous. But I was totally, nobody can change my mind or tell me what to fucking do, I-worked-13 hours-over-what-I-was-hired-for-this-pay-period-so-I’m-gonna-spend-it-on-meeee, 100% going to pierce my nipples.

I felt at ease when we got there and I met her boyfriend. He knew ALL about the boy—knew intimately how he had fucked Red over, the lingering damage he’d done, and knew how he had destroyed me in a new way because she’d talked about me. There was an apprentice with him, too. It turned out that everyone BUT me in that damn room (so, 4 out of 5 people) had their nipples pierced. I nervously made some joke about not being part of the cool kids club. But I felt safe.

I imagine that getting your nipples/anything else of the sort is kind of a weird situation to begin with. But I knew Red, my roommate…and knew “of”/but had only just met her boyfriend. I wanted both Red and my roommate there, but it was a little trippy to take off my tank top and unlatch my front-closing bra (which I never wear, but it seemed like a perfect time to actually do so) and show my breasts in front of 4 people who had previously never seen them before while he marked my nipples for placement.

(Also, props to Red: dude is so much cuter than the boy, so sweet, doesn’t drink at all, takes care of himself, and gave off super calming vibes. And has actually good tattoos and a stable job. It made me go. Oh, yeah girl, he’s fucking cute. If you can heal from what he did to you and find love again, maybe I can too.)

Red had previously offered to hold my hand and as we got ready she grabbed my hand (which, now that I’m thinking about it, is probably the only physical contact we’ve ever had) and it was so comforting. Red’s boyfriend was very professional and I trusted him totally, he walked me through how he’s going to do it and when he wants me to breathe and all that. The week prior, Red had told me he’d ask which nipple was more sensitive, which is a question I’d never asked myself before; I went, huh, I…don’t know, and then banjo-strummed both, and found out that my left nipple is indeed more sensitive. (I was so excited to find something new about myself I didn’t know before, haha.) So he pierced that one first.

I felt fine initially, and then started feeling weird. I said, I don’t know if I’m faint-y or not yet, but I let him know I felt kind of weird and he gave me a cool washcloth and told me to just relax and breathe. I said, hold on, let’s see what my pulse is, and my pulse was 53, so I asked for my “don’t faint” bag and chugged my tiny little can of Mountain Dew. We waited several minutes and then I was like, okay, pulse is back to normal, let’s do the other one. And did it!

It didn’t hurt too badly. I loved how they looked. It was a perception-changing act for me. Not only was I saying fuck you to Longtime (who’d poopoo-ed the idea many times in our relationship), but I was replacing “here is another thing the boy said he’d do and didn’t [and probably did with his now wife]” with “I went out and fucking did this myself on a meaningfully significant date that I previously had associated with something painful and I made it part of my healing narrative.” I caused myself actual physical trauma, triggering some feelings and sensations and emotions I had not felt in a while, in a controlled, supportive environment. I got to pick how the hurt happened that day. And the hurt wasn’t the focus of the whole thing; I wanted to do it because I’d been wanting to do it for years. I wanted to do something to make myself feel beautiful. Instead of having a panic attack thinking about the minutiae of that evening the year before, I got to have my new day. I took all the elements—the boy, nipple piercings, Red, Red’s boyfriend being an actual piercer, August 16th, my roommate—and I got to redo it all. Instead of having my nipples pierced by someone who systematically abused me, I had my nipples pierced by the boyfriend of someone who had experienced some of the same things, by the same person, and she’s here holding my hand as I leap into this experience and the boy is not. I wanted to connect these threads in my life in a way that felt empowering and healing and transformative. It was beautiful and sunny that evening. We had the windows down on the way home. A new memory. A rewrite.

I’m so glad I did it. I thought I was CURED of anxiety for about a week afterwards (spoiler alert: I was merely riding on the high of all sorts of adrenaline and pain responses and other hormones, I’m sure, haha). I felt so calm and cool and collected in a way I never had. Relaxed. At peace. And then “I” came back. Anxiety came back. Freaking out about work came back. But since then, I just. I don’t know. It feels different. It was a really healing act for me. I’m so proud of myself.

I’m going to stop here for now. But that’s where I am. My therapist told me she’s moving to California in a month yesterday. A year ago, I would’ve had a crisis. It would’ve been super jarring and I’d be in meltdown mode. I guess, I did do that, since my old therapist basically dumped me right after I found out that the boy had gotten married to the girl he’d cheated on me with ten months prior. tI think I am kind of having a micro-one, but the fact that I finally de-emotionally constipated myself by writing all this out, feels better. I think I’m sad about it. Yet I think this is the push I need to actually start trauma-based work/EMDR. We talked about it in session yesterday and she agreed. She asked if I wanted to continue seeing her or start transitioning now, and I said. It would be good to have a therapeutic situation wherein I actually have termination carried out properly, since I have never done that, and I would like for us to process and discuss our relationship ending so that it can happen in a positive way. Like. Woah, me.

She agreed I’m doing better, too. I have been exercising regularly, for the first time, since, childhood?? And it makes my brain feel better? WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME? (I might be being a little sarcastic regarding that query.) Eating is still not great. I am using my DBT skills naturally, which is cool. It often does still feel like whack-a-mole—once I feel like I have something figured out, another problem pops up. I guess that’s life, though.

Wow. How my mind meandered. I took my medication this afternoon with the intent to look back at my journals, something, I don’t know. (I was prescribed intranasal ketamine in PHP last December for treatment-resistant depression; it’d always been something I wanted to try but was out of my reach until I ended up at that hospital’s program). I grabbed the journal I’d kept during that time (the first ever composition notebook I completely filed every page of), the one I’d started after that, and the 2 wire bound notebooks I kept when I was with the boy, hoping to finally face head-on some of these things I’ve been avoiding re-processing for a while. I think part of it was me wanting to activate myself. In a healthy way, but also maybe not. I feel really good about the thing with my therapist but I know there are elements at work in my brain, things I have no control over, that are probably dealing with abandonment, again. Again again again again. It feels better now, I feel more in-tune with myself, but I know that some of these things I don’t have any control over. So maybe that’s why I wanted to grab all of these notebooks and re-activate myself. I dunno.

I feel good. Things are okay. I still hurt a lot. But it’s okay.

#mine #the boy #longtime #therapist #red #dbt #positivity #trauma #emdr #ketamine #abandonment #eating #august 16th

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themattress · 6 years

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My Top 50 OUAT Episodes

And now, as a final goodbye to OUAT, I give you this list of my personal picks for the 50 best episodes in the series, listed in order of airing. Two-hour broadcasts are counted as one here.

1. Pilot - 1x01. One of the best TV pilots of recent years due to how quickly it grabs you and emotionally invests you in its magical atmosphere and the plight of its central characters.

2. The Thing You Love Most - 1x02. Best watched immediately after the pilot, as it deals with the same story but from the dark and twisted perspective of its villain, the Evil Queen.

3. Snow Falls - 1x03. Snow and Charming are, well, charming in their first adventure together and the start of their romance, as is sweet Mary Margaret in the present day.

4. That Still Small Voice - 1x05. Jiminy Cricket of all characters gets a surprisingly dark and emotional backstory that resonates with him in the extremely intense present-day scenario.

5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - 1x07. Jamie Dornan gives an incredible performance as the tormented Sheriff Graham / Huntsman, all the way to the episode’s tragic conclusion.

6. Desperate Souls - 1x08. We get our first true insight into the backstory of the enigmatic Rumpelstiltskin, and Emma becomes sheriff, making this a truly pivotal episode for the show.

7. Skin Deep - 1x12. A truly subversive, twisted take on the Beauty and the Beast story, with some unexpected layers added to Rumple’s character and Robert Carlyle’s performance.

8. Red-Handed - 1x15. Little Red Riding Hood IS the Big Bad Wolf. That is awesome.

9. Hat Trick - 1x17. One of the most terrifying, surreal episodes in the entire series, with the great Sebastian Stan knocking it out of the park as the deranged Mad Hatter, Jefferson.

10. The Return - 1x19. We learn why the curse was cast in a devastatingly emotional story that adds more to the characters of Rumple and August as the season enters its final stretch.

11. The Stranger - 1x20. August’s true identity is one of the best reveals in the whole series.

12. An Apple Red As Blood - 1x21. Part 1 of the season finale, as Regina in both the past and present gears up to finish off her nemesis, with the episode ending on a huge shocker.

13. A Land Without Magic - 1x22. Part 2 of the season finale, the best finale the show ever had, and quite possibly my all-time favorite episode. Almost everything about this episode is perfect and gives you the feeling of a story coming to its end as the threads come together.

14. Broken - 2x01. A solid season opener that sets the show on an exciting new course.

15. Lady of the Lake - 2x03. Things really pick up as Team Princess is formed, Cora is established as the new Big Bad, and we get some beautiful moments between Snow and Emma that make it all the more shameful that the show utterly ruins this dynamic later on.

16. The Doctor - 2x05. Dr. Whale is Victor Frankenstein. Did NOT see that coming!

17. Tallahassee - 2x06. The first adventure that “Captain Swan” (Emma and Hook) partake in together, while at the same time we finally learn about Emma’s sad past with her ex-lover.

18. Queen of Hearts - 2x09. A thrilling conclusion to the first arc of Season 2, where we finally learn Cora’s motivations and get an epic fight between the heroes and the villains.

19. Manhattan - 2x14. This episode is a real turning point, with Emma’s ex-lover being revealed as Rumple’s long-lost son, along with several new insights into Rumple’s past.

20. The Queen Is Dead - 2x15. One of the show’s most emotional episodes, in no small part thanks to Bailee Madison’s truly amazing performance as young Snow in the flashback.

21. The Miller's Daughter - 2x16. We learn about Cora’s fascinating backstory and the true nature of her relationship with Rumple. But then she dies, and the season totally falls apart.

22. Second Star To The Right - 2x21. Finally it feels like shit is getting done, and the concept of a terrifying re-imagining of Peter Pan in the flashback is immediately captivating.

23. And Straight On 'Til Morning - 2x22. The mess Season 2 became gets cleaned up in this gripping finale, with a brilliant new story set-up laid out to be followed in Season 3.

24. The Heart Of The Truest Believer - 3x01. OUAT is truly back at the top of its game here, juggling four different plot threads perfectly and introducing its greatest villain, Peter Pan.

25. Lost Girl - 3x02. The flashback here is meh, but the present day stuff is nigh-perfect.

26. Quite a Common Fairy - 3x03. For the first time, Regina’s potential redemption feels good and genuine, and Rose McIver’s re-imagining of Tinker Bell is a delight from the start.

27. Good Form - 3x05. Hook’s backstory is amazing, and Captain Swan truly begins here.

28. Ariel - 3x06. JoAnna Garcia Swisher makes a truly perfect live-action rendition of Ariel, and the interactions between all the characters in Neverland take a truly engaging turn.

29. Dark Hollow - 3x07. Belle and Ariel, on a mission from Rumpelstiltskin, team up to fight John and Michael Darling who serve the villainous Peter Pan. Only on this show, people!

30. Think Lovely Thoughts - 3x08. The “Nevengers” truly show how far they’ve come working as a group here, and we get one of the show’s most shocking and twisted reveals.

31. Going Home - 3x11. The perfect series finale that isn’t a series finale, with the action increasingly slowing down so that you can fully appreciate the emotions. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if the show had ended right here, I’d have been completely satisfied.

32. Witch Hunt - 3x13. Just plain fun and funny, with great dialogue and great character interactions that really get you re-adjusted to these characters and to life in Storybrooke.

33. The Jolly Roger - 3x17. Quite possibly the quintessential Hook episode, showing just what kind of a person he was and how he desperately wants to be a better man now.

34. Snow Drifts / There's No Place Like Home - 3x21 / 22. After the incredible letdown that was the climax of the Wicked arc, we get this two-part finale that really embodies the magic OUAT had and never quite will again, with Emma’s character arc coming to a fitting end.

35. The Apprentice - 4x04. “The Dark One lies. The Dark One tricks”. This episode does a perfect job at re-establishing Rumple as a true villain and a schemer to be reckoned with.

36. The Snow Queen - 4x07. Quite possibly the most heartbreaking villain backstory the show has ever had, plus riveting scenes between Elizabeth Mitchell and Jennifer Morrison.

37. Smash the Mirror - 4x08. It’s overlong and the Regina and Robin subplot is complete bullshit, but everything else in both the past and present is golden. The 4A arc peaked here.

38. Shattered Sight - 4x10. The boffo comedy in this episode is cringe-inducing, but all of the serious, emotional stuff centered around the Snow Queen and her family gets me every time.

39. Poor Unfortunate Soul - 4x15. Ursula’s backstory is kind of iffy, but the effect it has on Hook and his development here is really good, as are the villains and August’s return.

40. Sympathy for the De Vil - 4x18. “Evil isn’t born, it’s made”...except in this case, where it is 100% born and takes us on a twisted tale that could pass for a good Twilight Zone episode.

41. The Broken Kingdom - 5x04. The twist of the glorious kingdom of Camelot being a kingdom literally built on sand, and its monarch a disturbed megalomaniac, is a great one. Plus, Snow and Charming actually get do something heroic after a long period of inactivity!

42. Nimue - 5x07. The actors portraying Merlin and Nimue really sell the doomed epic romance between the two, as we get the most far-back flashback in the show’s entire run.

43. Labor of Love - 5x13. This episode can be summed up as “The Nevengers are back.” That alone counters the disappointment of how blandly Hercules and Megara are portrayed.

44. The Brothers Jones - 5x15. A touching tale of brotherhood, good intentions gone wrong, self-loathing and forgiveness, plus giving Hook closure with his big brother. I just love it.

45. Firebird - 5x20. The flashback is utter tripe, but the escalation in the present-day story, the performances, and Captain Swan’s True Love test makes this episode well worth it.

46. Last Rites - 5x21. Aside from that moment with Robin, this episode is awesome, especially the Underworld scenes with the duo I never knew I wanted: Hook and Arthur.

47. The Other Shoe - 6x03. This episode embodies what the show SHOULD have become: a more light-hearted series with adventures-of-the-day starring Emma, Hook and Henry.

48. A Wondrous Place - 6x15. Hook sails on Captain Nemo’s sub, the Nautilus, alongside Aladdin and Jasmine, meeting up with Ariel and facing down Jafar. Only on this show, people!

49. The Song in Your Heart - 6x20. Because really, who doesn’t love a Musical Episode? This one centering around Emma and her marriage to Hook makes it all the more special.

50. The Final Battle - 6x21 / 22. It’s got a LOT of problems, but the ending it reaches is truly one that fits the show, and we would have been better off if ABC hadn’t renewed it afterward.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

The Price of Gold - 1x04. Rumpelstiltskin’s first showcase episode, and he’s terrifying in it.

Dreamy - 1x14. Screw the haters, I really liked this episode! It was hilarious and sweet.

The Crocodile - 2x04. Our introduction to Killian Jones / Captain Hook. It’s a good one, and I’d have liked it better had Rumple’s role in both the past and present not been so disturbing.

Save Henry - 3x09. A tad anti-climactic and the Regina focus was misaimed, but still good.

New York City Serenade - 3x12. A damn fine start to a new beginning for the show.

Rocky Road - 4x03. Elsa and the Snow Queen are both fantastic characters, both shown well here. It’s held back by the introduction of Will Scarlet, who ended up being a waste.

Darkness on the Edge of Town - 4x12. This episode gives us the visual of villains on a road trip stopping at a drive-thru. You just gotta love that! Also, the Chernabog was awesome.

Operation Mongoose - 4x21 / 22. Despite Isaac’s (and by extension, A&E’s) terrible writing, the weird situations and performances from the actors makes this an entertaining finale.

Siege Perilous - 5x03. A good old-fashioned Camelot adventure is just what I wanted.

The Bear King - 5x09. Again, screw the haters. The show needed more episodes like this, a standalone where the plot takes a pause and the side characters are allowed to develop.

Broken Heart - 5x10. The present-day plot is absolute crap, but the flashback in Camelot is really well executed, and Colin O’Donoghue is clearly having a blast playing Dark Hook.

Souls of the Departed - 5x12. Not ideal for the 100th episode, but a good start to the Underworld arc, with a lot of familiar faces returning and a great new villain introduced.

Devil's Due - 5x14. Despite her fate in this episode, it’s great to see the writers presenting Milah more sympathetically than she was before, and Hades continues to be a delight.

Our Decay - 5x16. The first episode where Zelena feels truly human instead of the cartoonish psychopath she was before, with her and Hades’ romance being legit touching.

Sisters - 5x19. While I don’t much care for the subplot with Prince James, the main plot featuring the reconciliation between Cora, Regina and Zelena is great and beautifully acted.

Strange Case - 6x04. Oh, Mr. Hyde, you left us way too soon. The episode is sadly weighed down by Rumple’s textbook abuse toward Belle, which we now know is never truly punished.

Dark Waters - 6x06. A good bonding episode between Hook and Henry, plus a great new character from the Land of Untold Stories who is actually faithful to his source material!

Heartless - 6x07. For once, Lana Parilla actually gives us an old-school Evil Queen performance, where she’s scary and truly malevolent rather than campy and over-the-top.

Mother's Little Helper - 6x16. I really like the Dark Realm, and wish that more was done with it. The reunion between long-time rivals Hook and Blackbeard is also a lot of fun.

The Black Fairy - 6x19. The retcon that Rumple was born a Savior is ridiculous, but the titular Black Fairy’s backstory actually makes her an interesting character for the first time.

A Pirate's Life - 7x02. It was nice to see Emma again, and even better to see that the Hook in this arc is actually Wish!Hook rather than the original, who is still living happily with Emma.

The Girl in the Tower - 7x14. Robin and Alice are beyond precious as a couple in both the past and the present, finally washing away the bad taste left behind by “Ruby Slippers”.

The Guardian - 7x18. It may have been late in coming, but Rumple / Weaver actually becomes interesting here as we get to explore his relationship with his newfound friends.

Homecoming - 7x21. It’s good to see several old characters again, and even better to see all the loose threads from that abominable Season 6 Wish Realm two-parter finally addressed.

Leaving Storybrooke - 7x22. Except for Rumple’s end, most of what happens following Snow and Charming’s appearance is utter shit. But.....at least the show is finally over!

#Once Upon a Time #ABC #Opinion

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jade-of-mourning · 3 years

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so now that i’ve posted set the sails and school’s out, i want to lay out a List Of (Possibly) Feasible Fanfiction Goals for before the end of the summer — early august, that is, or Two Full Months —, considering that i probably won’t really get to write much at all afterwards. also from hereon out i plan to say Fuck Keeping A Nice Looking Blog so.

[- is higher, ~ is lower on the goal list]

atla

- finish chapters 8/9/10 of issalam. top priority, but few enough words that i’ll probably take my sweet time and let myself work on other things. has a general sense of direction so far and some parts outlined!

- the last two parts of assassin!zuko. i’ve got outlines, haven’t really worked on them since january, but now that i’m cutting back the other fic’s grind i want to work on them! not sure which will come first, though.

~ that one qpr maiko oneshot with a side servings of knives, ace!zuko and druk i chugged out a while back. i’m just a sucker for their post-canon emo kid dynamic and mai being druk’s favorite person okay

~ fun times with mako? specifically, with his new mom. sorry but he accidentally became my favorite from lok through nothing more than ao3 itself <3

~ i have more small things but they’re not really high on my list tbh. don’t think we’ll ever see learning life’s (un)lyrical lessons unfortunately :(

& definitely not atla

- vying for the broken crown (ranger’s apprentice), my first actual foray into fandom fanfiction. (it was terrible shh.) featuring deaf!caitlyn, halt and ferris having Not So Fun Times and lutes

~ the second part to 738 minutes (infinity train), i’d love to shake that out of my brain’s dumb word machine. it’s now about ryan’s perpetual case of Lacking In Familial Love <3

~ really want to write a short tdp/atla oneshot crossover if i’m being honest lol bc there is NO CONTENT even after the perfect setup of reincarnation. i finally rewatched tdp after almost two years!

i don’t have too many goals aside from that, but i’ll write as inspiration goes bam wham thwonk! okay now that i realize how short the summer actually is idk how many of these i’ll actually get to, but i’m going to fucking try until my corpse has burned down to the last ashes and i have no more words inside my dead, dead shriveled fruit body. link for any published progress <3

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wallpaperpainter · 4 years

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Second on-demand admission this year to go alive on Aug. 3

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Added than 1,400 acceptance will apprehend their names alleged during Purdue University’s summer commencement.

Originally appointed for Aug. 8, the on-demand admission will be acquaint online for graduates and their families to admission starting Aug. 3. This is the additional Purdue’s admission will be offered on-demand due to the all-around COVID-19 pandemic.

Purdue alum Marjorie Magner, a founding affiliate and accomplice of Brysam All-around Partners, will be the keynote speaker.

Magner helped anatomy Brysam, a specialized clandestine disinterestedness close that invests in customer cyberbanking services, in 2006. Before that, she served as armchair and arch controlling administrator of Citigroup’s All-around Customer Group, area she was amenable for confined barter through retail banking, acclaim cards and customer finance.

Magner accustomed her Bachelor of Science amount in attitude from Brooklyn College and a master’s amount in automated administering from Purdue’s Krannert School of Management. She accustomed an honorary doctorate in administration from Purdue in 2004.

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She was alleged to Fortune’s account of Best Powerful Women in Business from 2001-2004, as able-bodied as Forbes’ account of the World’s Best Powerful Women, and U.S. Banker’s account of the 25 Best Powerful Women in Banking. She becoming the New York Stock Exchange Governance Services’ countdown Leadership Award for a Non-Executive Chairman in 2014.

About 1,412 acceptance are acceptable for degrees, with 450 undergraduates, 959 alum and three able affairs acceptance acceptable to participate in the ceremony. Purdue additionally will present a following Bachelor of Science amount in automated engineering to the ancestors of Trever L. Col.

The on-demand admission additionally will affection a apprentice responder, Aaron B. Benjamin of Haddonfield, New Jersey. He is accepting his doctoral amount in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture. Benjamin was an alive affiliate of the Purdue Alum Apprentice Government, area he was a affiliate of the activity team, broker and adumbrative to the RecWell Advisory Board. He additionally was an administrator to the Biochemistry Alum Apprentice Organization. While in biochemistry, he served as a teaching abettor and coach to three alum and nine undergraduate students. He has had analysis appear in Organic Letters, Biochemistry and the Journal of the American Chemical Society for his assignment on amalgam and clear structures of assorted compounds.

August 2020 graduates will accept a special “commencement in a box” that includes a authority cover, the admission program, any becoming ceremoniousness cords and medals, and some Boilermaker goodies. The box additionally includes advice on how to download the ceremony, which they can watch with their families at a time that works for them. Assembly of the boxes began on Monday (July 13) at the Purdue Armory.

Graduates additionally accustomed admonition to Purdue’s Commencement 2020 website. The armpit contains information, links and videos to abundant aspects for graduates and families to bless the momentous journey. Items that can be accessed on the armpit are agenda downloads of signs and banners, agenda wallpapers and filters, and alive amusing media feeds. The on-demand admission video will be acquaint there and will accommodate appropriate letters from Purdue’s deans.

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Each apprentice will accept their name alleged and accept their authority cover. Graduates are encouraged to booty photos of themselves and their families watching the commemoration or after and column to amusing media application the #PurdueWeDidIt hashtag.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top accessible analysis academy developing applied solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Best Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing analysis and aces discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative apprenticeship to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has arctic charge and best fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling added acceptance than anytime to alum debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the assiduous following of the abutting behemothic bound at purdue.edu.

Writer: Media contact: Matthew Oates, 765-586-7496 (cell), [email protected], @mo_oates

Source: Christine DeHahan Pass, chief abettor registrar, [email protected]

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Related Releases

Purdue releases on-demand commencement, celebrates graduates amidst all-around communicable (May 11, 2020)

Purdue All-around admission recognizes added than 1,000 graduates (June 8, 2020)

Note to Journalists: Images of apostle and the admission box are on a Google Drive. Admission coordinators are accessible for interviews via buzz or web-based appointment services.

Journalists visiting campus: Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:

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twistednuns · 4 years

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August 2019

India // It’s incredibly hard to sum up my feelings about India and Nepal. It was a truly incredible trip. And so exhausting. It was enriching, interesting, hard, disgusting, educational, everything. This is not the place to talk about my experience at length so I’ll just write down some nice moments I collected along the way //

on the go // the huge corner toilet at MUC airport departures / Rischart coffee / the smell of the Emirates airline NOIR lotion they offer in their bathrooms / cherry-flavoured Skittles // Delhi // brightly painted buses and tuk-tuks / eating at AB veg restaurant in Hauz Khas, inredibly delicious and cheap / being lucky enough to choose the hostel in Hauz Khas village; meeting Dominique, Christie, Ayush, Samar and Julia / all those talks we had about linguistics, education systems, the future, politics, travelling, home, friends, experiences with magic mushrooms, Hannah Arendt, travelling (…); talking to Christy about her past, family, criminal record / Mosambi juice / Nici constantly flirting with me, trying to seduce me. She told me I’m posh, assertive, regal and I know myself very well. Making out with her was fun but honestly… not worth the drama. / Mosambi juice / a consultation with a renowned Ayurveda doctor - I loved talking to her even though she wasn’t able to tell me anything I hadn’t known already; sometimes it’s nice to get the confirmation that what you found out on your own is exactly the right thing / eating momos and Kathi rolls, the best Thalis / parties on the rooftop until the sunrise interrupted us; grilling whole fish, saying goodbye to Julia, singing along to Louise Attaque and Cher songs / riding rickshaws through Delhi; extra fun: squeezing 5 people in and listening to club music / the sheets smelling chalky with a hint of grape sugar / dancing at Raasta / petting cute street doggies / a cooking class with Mansi and her family in North Delhi - delicious food and really nice people, I fell in love with the mum / eating at Social (that building is just amazing) and strolling through the little alleys and stores at Hauz Khas village with Christie; she showed me the place where she got her linnen dresses and we talked to a jewellery store owner for quite a while / the spice market, climbing up a building and watching the men flying their kites, tasting some street food and spices, realiszing that there is a market street dedicated to a single group of things like the shoe market, the jewellery market etc. / the Brit Brats sharing their joints; tripping to Bayonne / the hidden merchant streets with colourful wall art around the entrances / PANEER (!) / stand-up comedy with a female comedian / elevator selfies / learning about the development of Indian scripts and letters/characters in Sanskrit in the National Museum; erotic sculptures, very detailed paintings depicting badass, tiger-hunting ladies / I saw a peacock. Cows, chipmunks, pigs, horses, monkeys, goats, guinea pigs, bunnies, cats and dogs, bats, herons, boars, caterpillars, centipedes, horses, donkeys (…) / finding the perfect triangular earrings with gemstones at the Dilli Haat market; getting some nice dresses, too / living on water and mango juice, feeling very light and clean, having an empty stomach all the time / Gandhi Smriti, retracing Mahatma’s last steps before his assassination / feeling human again after a few days in bed - I love the power of make-up, bananas, fresh clothes and those pink little Pepto-Bismol pills the Canadian lady gave me / Delhi central station; just WOW. It’s places like that which make you realise just how many people there are in India. //

Rishikesh // the man helping me with the bus to Rishikesh; the kindness of strangers / “I thank the Lord for the people I have found” (Elton John - Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters) / emotional bus rides: crying for no reason, letting go, for the first time in a very long time; emotional turmoil, softening up; leaving people and whole countries behind / seeing the huge Shiva ceremony at the Ganges from the bus / my yoga teacher training, getting to know the other students / learning about a magic trick against bad posture / instant karma / the view from the rooftop, watching the sunrise over the lower Himalaya mountains / the simple, vega, ayurvedic food they offered at the ashram / visiting the temples with the apprentice yogi and his scooter; walking up 13 stories in the blazing sun, receiving a blessing and some red string around my wrist; taking part in the Ganga ceremony at sunset / the Beatles Ashram; it’s just this amazing place with incredible street art, and those ruins, the meditation caves and eggs on the rooftop… climbing up there was one of my highlights in Rishikesh / close second: visiting a meditation cave at the Ganges, a bit further up in the mountains; a monk had spent 15 years in that cave practising meditation / all the beautiful shops around town focussing on yoga accessoires / putting my feet in the Ganges #blessed #moksha / learning about my aggression during silent yoga / all the animals around town: horses, donkeys, cows, monkeys and whatnot //

Varanasi // taking the night train for the first time; I shared my little compartment with a family and three little children but they were surprisingly dramafree and actually quite cute / a sunset boat trip on the Ganges, seeing the ghats, the ceremonies, the moon rise / the little alleys behind the ghats; the stores, the surprises / Marnikarnika Ghat was really impressive; it’s the cremation place and I saw dead bodies for the first time / accidentally discovering the Dirty Chai Cafe (chocolate peanut butter shakes and fresh, cold mint lemonade), finding a Kamala Das poetry book on the shelf / spending an afternoon with the German journalist (so weird how the atmosphere shifts when you’re accompanied by a man there; also our dynamic made me feel so glad to be travelling alone, to only be responsible for myself, to be independent); sharing a banana and water surrounded by goats in Hanuman Ghat; the view over the river from his room; him gently stroking my cheekbone / buying two saris in a little corner shop / my jewellery quest (unsuccessful) / eating fresh fruit salad after hardly eating solid food for days / checking out that little park on my last day, the air buzzing with dragonflies / watching the sunset from the hostel’s rooftop, filming a slow motion video / India brings out trauma and deep emotions; the people kept staring at me for whatever reason; I kept having disturbing dreams about my dead father and grandmother; and the mob-video Christy showed me didn’t help either (the whole village carried a man through the streets, eventually beating him up because he couldn’t pay off his debts) //

Nepal // the first view of Nepal from the bus windows - how much greener, how much emptier it is than India / meeting some nice people on the bus - an American, a Brit and two Frenchies; grabbing dinner in Kathmandu with the latter / watching the sunrise at the border between India and Nepal / sitting next to the mayor of small town council on the bus ride; communicating with hand and feet / the Kathmandu valley is such a gorgeous sight / I got lucky with my hostel; Yakety Yak was a really nice and quiet place to stay; they even had laundry service and a shelf with free books - I read two or three of them because I behaved like a good (home)sick German abroad: bed, Haribo, carbonated water, trashy literature / visiting Bhaktapur, a gorgeous small town in the Kathmandu valley / watching the latest Tarantino movie at the cinema; the tickets were incredibly cheap / walking up the hill to the temple and the monastery, enjoying the incredible view over the surrounding hills; meeting two ladies from Austria, they live close to my old university town; walking to the centre through back alleys, stopping at a rooftop cafe, ordering three drinks at once (liquid diet) / that one jewellery store near the Pokhara bus station - I found some gorgeous brass rings with precious stones for little money / the busy square, the markets / hanging out in the hammock in my hostel in Pokhara, overlooking the lake / watching the skydivers land / the ayurvedic cafe and the other place serving smoothie bowls by the lake - it’s such a fantastic moment when you finally feel hungry again and eat a little solid food after fasting/suffering for a few days / two incredibly weird guys from Latvia and Berlin who provided a nice, mellow ending for my shitty day and even made me survive the mosquito attacks / meeting my travel agent who actually took me out dancing and gave me a ride on his motorcycle to the bus stop; he even gave me some fruit for the ride / By the Way starting to play while waiting for Vietnamese food / hunting down a place that sells semi-precious stone columns in Kathmandu; negotiating with the old lady selling them; getting some brass souvenirs for my friends and family / the view from the airplane - seeing the Himalaya for the first time; I pity people who’ve stopped looking out of windows //

Coming home. I’ve NEVER felt happier entering my apartment after a trip. Being alone. Truly alone. Silence. Three rooms just for me. My bed. Having all my stuff back. Toiletries! Nice body lotion. My favourite perfume. Going to the supermarket. Unpacking all the jewellery, clothes and knick-knacks I bought. Taking care of my plants.

Making a huge batch of my favourite ratatouille / pasta sauce.

Visiting Manu in hospital. Cheering him up a little bit.

Finally receiving my black and white analogue photos. I loved the shot of Andre looking like he’s being kissed by a dementor. And Lexi looking dead cool at ADBK.

Pizza party at Grano with Lena. Eating sorbet out of a lemon.

Riding my bike through the forest on a sunny morning. Stopping to take pictures of the beautiful light, the yellow flowers. Spending too much money at the garden center. Driving home, IKEA bags full of plants.

Inventing my signature manicure: a little black dot just above the nailbed.

Having an evening beer outside at Sofa So Good with Andre.

Stumbling upon Konsti. The one who ghosted me years ago after a beautiful summer spent kissing in lakes because his therapist had told him so. Well, we talked for a few days, but guess what - he just ghosted me for a second time. Fool me one - shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me.

#things i love #august #2019 #august 2019 #personal #present perfect #india #nepal

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randomsofmine · 7 years

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August Wrap Up

This has been an amazing reading month and its largely in part thanks to Tome Topple and The Reading Quest readathons. I picked some amazing books and they inspired and drove me to keep reading. In total, I read 16 books with no DNF’s and a total of 5512 pages. (thats roughly 177 pages per day!)

Books Outside of Readathons

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, book 1) by Stephen King

This was really not what I was expecting,after watching the movie trailer.It is very different.But I really liked it.It had a Old West/High fantasy feel to it. There was a bit of time jumping and the main character is a bit of an unreliable narrator.I also felt like I’d missed part of the story.But I will be picking up more of the series (hopefully soon!).I’m already a massive Stephen King fan but I’ve only read his horror novels and am really looking forward to going into his other genres. 4/5

San Andreas Shifters series by Gail Carriger

Marine Biology, book 0.5 2.5/5

The Sumage Solution, book 1 3.5/5

So these are by a favourite author of mine.I love Gail Carrigers steampunk series The Parasol Protectorate. Now while I didn’t fall immediately in love with this series, I did enjoy it a lot. The Sumage Solution was this months VF alt pick, which I’m really glad of. It’s a m/m erotic romance and is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate but further into the future. The novella was ok, it was a short story to get you into the world and could have done with being a bit longer to give us more time with the characters. The Sumage Solution was very sweet and there were some very good sexy time scenes between the two main characters.I will definitely be continuing on with the series.

Tome Topple

The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch

The Lies of Locke Lamora, book 1 5/5

Red Seas Under Red Skies, book 2 5/5

I read the first book in this series years ago, loved it and always meant to return. I kept putting it off and then managed to pick up books 2 and 3 as part of a deal a little while ago. Re-reading the 1st book was amazing. I thought I had remembered everything but I definitely hadn’t. I had only planned on reading the 1st book for the readathon but found myself diving into the 2nd book straight away. And it didn’t disappoint. It was just as brilliant as the 1st. Scott Lynch has created a fantastic world, which is almost Medieval Italy with an Oceans 11 theme and some magic. I loved Locke and Jean’s friendship. The whole book is filled with the amazingly realistic characters, twists and very dark moments. I’ll be picking up the 3rd book as soon as my readathons are over.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide, book 1) by Mackenzie Lee

This book was such a delight to read. Its a fun historical romp across Europe......except its not just that. Its also a m/m romance between 2 best friends. The main character is bisexual and has clearly been abused by his father because of his relationships with men. This is the 18th century and Percy is part of the aristocracy so this is not unexpected and I think it was handled fairly well. Percy’s sister is also along for the ride and is (potentially) asexual, which I just loved as asexuality is not something that is usually written about much. There will be a sequel next year and I will be picking it up. 5/5

Orange: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1 by Ichigo Takano

This was a cute manga set in a school, where a new student has just arrived. The main character has received a mysterious letter in the mail which sets into motion a series of events. I enjoyed this. It was fun, although I didn’t get some of the references or humour, but I have already bought the 2nd volume. 4/5

The Reading Quest

Assassins Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, book 1)by Robin Hobb

This was also for the readathon Plenty of Hobb and a re-read. I think I read this about 8 or 9 years ago and had only vague memories about the story. One thing I had forgotten........how dark it could be. There were some moments where I had to stop for a second to breathe. It was amazing. The world building was rich and interesting. The story had me on edge at parts and always interested.I will be carrying on with the series, one a month for the next year and I am sorely tempted to just ignore the schedule and jump into the next book. 4.5/5

Paper Girls, vol. 3 by Brian K Vaughn

This just keeps getting better and better. I don’t want to spoil too much but I will say if you love mysteries that are outside the box, excellent characters and strong world building, this is definitely for you. 4/5

October Daye series by Seanan McGuire

Chimes at Midnight, book 7 4/5

Never Shines The Sun , book 7.5 3/5

And so continues my love for this series. Its just one of my favourite. Seanan McGuire has created this very dark and fascinating world.Book 7 was full of high stakes and had me on edge to see how it would end.And full of the gallows humor that I love.Book 7.5 is a novella set before the series and adds another layer of mystery to Octobers life.

Knit One,Two Girls by Shira Glassman

This was a short f/f romance centered around a knitting project. It was sweet and well written. It could have done with being much longer. I wanted to spend more time with the two main characters and have the romance more drawn out. It went a bit too quickly for me. But if you are looking for a good short story, I can recommend this. 3/5 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A fascinating and some what horrifying look into the history of the HeLa cells. These cells lead to the discovery of an untold amount of vaccines, cures and scientific knowledge. However the origin of the cells (and sometimes use of) is highly controversial. The cells were taken from an African American woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks, in the 1950′s who had cervical cancer without her or her family’s knowledge or permission. This is a hard book to read, there are areas that will make a person uncomfortable. It goes into detail about Henrietta Lacks history (medical and personal) as well as her family’s history (I would give a trigger warning for the parts about Deborah Lacks childhood). It also goes into the history of scientific experimentation,especially on people of colour. There were genuine moments where I had to put the book down due to the overwhelming emotion I was feeling at the time, mostly anger and horror.I completely recommend this book, I think its very important for people to understand what has happened and how far we’ve come. 4.5/5

Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy, book 1) by Nora Roberts

An easy magical romance read. I’ve read Nora Roberts Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy which I really enjoyed and this is along a similar vein. It takes place in Greece and brings together a bunch of strangers who are linked to an ancient myth. It is very insta-lovey but for a quick easy read, its not too bad. 3/5

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer

A classic Georgette Heyer novel that thankfully lived up to its hype. I’ve so far never found a bad book of hers. Miscommunication, rakes and high society.I actually listened to this via Audible and the narrator was Richard Armitage which never hurts. 4/5

Overlapping Books

American Gods (American Gods, book 1) by Neil Gaiman

I picked this up after watching the Amazon tv series. It’s a fairly accurate adaptation which I really appreciate. This is my 3rd Neil Gaiman book and its by far my favourite. The melding of the modern world and the ancient was fascinating and really well done. 5/5

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tcswritings · 5 years

Text

Technical service. (wip)

:: updated on 07/18/2019 ::

Leila needs to get her car repaired and Mick isn’t too thrilled about meeting her.

It was a slow and lazy day at the garage and although Mick O’Loughlin really enjoyed his job, he was glad that there hadn’t been a whole lot of work to do lately. He was hanging out on the load bed of an old pick up truck that was parked inside the big hall where it was comfortably cool. It was mid-August and it had been a few unusually warm days and Mick had never adapted well to higher temperatures so he would take any chance to get out of the sun for a bit.

The garage would close in an hour and everyone else, including their boss, had already left so it was only Mick and the young apprentice, Colin, who had agreed to stay in case someone would be in need of service. Music blasted from the garage’s stereo and Mick was humming along to the tune. He would always put on his favourite music any time he was alone in the hall, sometimes even when he had company and Brian, his boss, usually let him have his way.

Despite his young age Mick was the inofficial second in command. Not only was he exceptionally good at his job - at almost thirteen years at this place he was also the longest serving employee. Granted, he hadn’t been officially employed for the first few years, for he had still been a student, merely helping out whenever he could in his free time, but he knew the internal workflow better than anybody else around and while they surely had their quarrels, Brian was incredibly appreciative of the younger man and his skill. In return, Mick tried his best not to push his limits too often because he was grateful for Brian giving him the chance to do what he had always wanted to do and, above all, for being very patient with him and his occasional antics.

Mick sighed at his cell phone. He had just lost another round of the newest game that Orla had recommended to him a few days ago.

“It’s so addictive and relaxing! I swear, once you start, you can’t stop!” she had said and he found that she was right. It was addicting, albeit he was still waiting for the part in which the game would feel relaxing. Truth was that it made for many moments when Mick just wanted to throw his phone out of the next window but that was most likely just him. He had never been known for his patience after all.

Just when he was about to start the next round, he heard the large garage door open. It had been a little rough running for a while and Colin groaned as he squeezed himself through the gap.

„There’s a lady outside in need of help.“ the boy called.

„Amazin'. Go help 'er then. Have fun.“ Mick replied, not even looking up from his game.

„Ah, I figured I’m gonna leave her to you. She’s a feisty one.“

Mick eventually turned his head and raised an eyebrow. Dealing with female customers was one thing, he usually liked that, even preferred them, but he certainly didn’t feel like handling some uptight shrew today.

“If I tried to pass work, I’d leave that last part out. Just sayin’.”

“Just thought I’d warn you.”

„I’m busy.“

„You sure are.” Colin frowned. “Just leave it be, you suck at that game anyway.” As Mick didn’t respond, he added: “I think she’s your age and boy, she’s steamin’. C’mon, ladies like you better, for sure.“

Mick couldn’t help himself now, he let out an amused little snort. He had spent almost twenty-six years on this earth and he had never heard anyone say that before. “If you say so.”

“Besides, I’m only the apprentice anyway!”

“Aw, now that’s just false modesty, man.” Mick replied, wondering where that humility was coming from all of a sudden. Colin usually loved taking any task given to him and he was quite skilled as well. “Just give it a shot and call me when you’re lost, as usual. Where’s the damn problem?”

Colin now sheepishly looked to the side and he shifted on the spot a little, looking uncomfortable. “I’m afraid she’s gonna bite my head off when I look at her the wrong way. Don’t make me say it, please.”

“Say what?”

“She’s freaking me out, man! Mick, please. I owe you!”

Rolling his eyes, Mick eventually decided to give in. “Alright, fine.” he sighed and shut down the game on his phone (Colin was right, he really sucked at it after all). He jumped off the truck and just as he did, he heard a female voice calling from outside.

“I’m not getting any younger out here, lads!”

Mick turned his head and then looked back at Colin, frowning.

“Seriously?” he muttered.

“I told you, she’s scary!” Colin whispered and he gave Mick a little push. “I’m gonna be right here, okay? Call me if you need any help. But, uhm... try not to.”

“Fuck off.” Mick smiled wryly, taking a deep breath before he eventually made his way outside, putting on his most confident swagger. She was most likely the last customer for today and he had no intention of letting anyone’s cranky mood get to him.

“Sorry we had ya waitin’, Miss, ‘t was just that-”

Mick stopped halfway, looking at the young woman. He didn’t even need to look twice - he instantly recognised her. ‘Fuck. You really owe me, Colin.’ he thought to himself.

Apparently, she had recognised him as well as she now crossed her arms and let out a dry laugh.

“Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse!” Leila Blake called at him. “Tadaa - it’s you.”

Mick blinked. ‘Dear Lord, why? Why her? Why me?’

His mind was frantically searching for appropriate ways to get out of this situation but there wasn’t a whole lot he could do aside from sending his undesired customer away or maybe running her over with her own car but both options weren’t actually professional so Mick merely took another deep breath and decided to just get it over and done with.

“Blake.” he nodded at her. “How’s hell been treatin’ ya?”

“Fabulous.” Leila smiled ironically. “They’re missing you.”

“Touché. What d’ya want?”

“Oh, well, I dunno, what could I possibly want with a car at a car repair shop?”

Mick rolled his eyes, supressing a groan. She certainly didn’t make this any easier for both of them. “I mean, what’s wrong?”

“If I knew what was wrong, I wouldn’t be here, would I? Gosh, you’re lucky you look like you do, O’Loughlin, ‘cause you’re obviously still lacking in the brains department.” Leila said, quite casually and with a smile, as if they were chatting about the weather.

At this point Mick felt taken right back to high school. ‘Easy, man. She’s still a customer. And... somewhat of a lady.’ he thought as he swallowed down a good bit of familiar frustration.

“Alright, I should probably take a look then.” he merely said, ostensibly calm and amicable.

“Hey, that’s most likely the best idea you ever had.”

(...)

[As service is still service, Mick figured he had to maintain at least some level of professionalism and that’s what he did during that first inspection (Leila refused to leave), ignoring Leilas occasional snarky little remarks and the tone of her voice and her use of one of his old nicknames he was given at school, but at some point he just had enough and looked Leila straight in the face over the car’s roof and said something like “Ya know, Blake, I know which screws to turn to make this thing blow up right under yer arse and trust me, no one’s ever gonna find out it was me.” in a very matter-of-fact tone. Leila, not really believing that but also not really wanting to push her luck and realising that she probably took it a bit too far for someone who was in need of service, gave in and softened her tone a bit: “Alright, fine, I’m sorry. Just fix it, okay? Please? Just make sure it won’t… it won’t blow up. Under my arse.” They looked at each other for a few more moments before Mick went on doing his job and he told Leila a lot of things she didn’t understand (and that she didn’t care to understand) but in the end she took what he said as “Leave this thing here ‘til Thursday, I’ll see what I can do.” and so they parted ways.

It turned out that Leila’s car was alright, it just hadn’t been taken care of very well. Mick had fixed and replaced a few things but it was no big deal overall while Leila was already sure that she would have to get a new car soon. She was more than happy to hear that that wasn’t going to be the case and Mick couldn’t recall a single time he had seen Leila genuinely smile and he chuckled quietly to himself, seeing the happy expression on her face. He doesn’t really know why, but even prior to this little moment, he had already decided to give her a pretty nice discount by not charging her for his work hours.]

(...)

Leila looked at the bill in her hands and then looked at Mick in surprise.

“It’s much less than I expected!”

“It’s fine. Make sure you never come back and we’re even.” he answered, not even looking up from the paperwork he was doing.

“Why would you- oh my god.” Leila paused. “You did loosen some screws. It will blow up right under my arse, right?”

Feeling a bit irritated, Mick looked up. “What?”

“What did you do? Manipulate the brakes or somethin’?”

“Psh, yeah.” Mick scoffed, looking back to the forms on the desk in front of him. “Way too easy.” he mumbled.

“Okay, I was actually just tryin’ to make a joke here but now I’m concerned.”

Silence.

“Oh for god’s sake, O’Loughlin, look at me!”

Rolling his eyes, Mick leaned back in his chair and looked at Leila, just as she requested. “I didn’t do anything. Do you- oh my god, d’ you really think I’m gonna try and kill people for talkin’ shit about me or what? Whoa, if that were true, half o’ the town’s population would be dead by now.”

“Well, your nickname back in school was Psycho after all.” Leila crossed her arms, holding Mick’s gaze.

“It wasn’t me who picked that one.” There were a few moments of silence before he went on. “Your car is fine. As good as new. Didn’t charge my hours ‘cause there wasn’t a whole lot to do the last few days and I was bored. Okay? That’s the whole story. That’s what ya call ‘doing someone a favour’.”

Again, silence.

“Okay.” Leila nodded. “Well, then… thank you. Really. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

Leila found herself strangely fascinated by Mick that day. After she left, she thought about that short conversation they had. She liked it. She liked the sort-of banter she had with people and even back at school, she had liked it when people got back at her, even though she would’ve never admitted it then. Leila had always liked it when people challenged her, in whatever way. What truly startled her that day was Mick’s random act of kindness. He didn’t have to do what he did after all but he still did it and she couldn’t figure out why. It’s not like she treated him or his friends well, not at all.

So from that moment on, Leila was hooked and also determined to find out why Michael “Psycho” O’Loughlin did things for people he hated and so she went back to the car shop a few days later, looking for Mick and making clear that she had absolutely no intentions of being in his debt.

“You know what? I’m free tonight.” she suddenly offered after she did a bit of rambling.

“… good for you?” Mick frowned, not entirely sure if he liked the direction this conversation was taking.

“I feel like havin’ a pint or two. You’ll come with me.”

“Leila…” Mick sighed, “there are about a million fuckin’ things I’d rather do than that.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Maybe shoot myself in the leg at midnight, or drink battery acid.”

“Doesn’t sound like fun to me?”

“Oh my god, what is your point? Leila, what do you want?” Mick groaned. “Is there, dunno, some sort of amnesia going on up there?” He slightly poked the side of her head. “We don’t like each other. Never did.”

“That was in High School, O’Loughlin. We’re grown-ups now. Don’t ya think it’s about time to finally leave that crap behind?”

“Hah! You of all people have the nerve-”

“I am sorry, okay? Honestly, though, do you really want to be miserable your entire life because of one annoying chick from High School?”

“I’m not miserable-”

“Look me in the eye and tell me this ain’t fun.” Leila smiled widely now and she could tell from the look on Mick’s face that she caught him off guard and she enjoyed it and also found him quite adorable.

Mick needed a moment to collect himself. “Just for the record - evening’s on you.” he said, curtly, and reached for his jacket that he had just dropped carelessly on the desk earlier. He marched past her, out of the garage, to his car that was parked outside.

Still smiling, Leila followed him outside. “Attaboy.”

And then they spent a fun evening at Rosamund’s and that’s pretty much it. For now, at least. It’s fun. It’s two former High School enemies engaging in fun conversations as adults and slowly realising that the other one ain’t too bad after all. And Leila is really one of a kind. I love her, I really do. That girl is fun. She’s got spunk. After that evening, they both agreed to maaayyybe to that again, when they happen to be free on the same night, and there’s nothing good on TV or… y’know. Maybe. Someday. Not really. But maybe. ;)

***

#leila x mick #leila #mick

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stacks-reviews · 7 years

Text

New Releases 7/24/27

Happy New Release Day!

In Books --The Backstagers volume 1 by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Rian Sygh “All the world’s a stage...but what happens behind the curtain is pure magic literally! When Jory transfers to an all-boys private high school, he is taken in by the only ones who don’t treat him like a new kid, the lowly stage crew known as the Backstagers. Not only does he gain great, lifetime friends, Jory is also introduced to an entire magical world that lives beyond the curtain. With the unpredictable twists and turns of the underground world, the Backstagers venture into the unknown, determined to put together the best play their high school has ever seen.”

I love everything about this. I hope it’ll be as good as it sounds. I mean, a magical boy band. Or at least a boy band that will travel to a magical world. What’s not to like.

--Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody The Gomorrah Festival is a traveling carnival of debauchery, catering to the strangest of dreams and desires. Sorina has spent most of her life on the borders of the festival as an illusion-worker, the only one to be born in hundreds of years. She creates illusions that you can see, feel and touch, that even have personalities. Sorina’s creations are like her family even though she knows that they are not truly real. At least until one of them is murdered. Desperate to save her family Sorina will venture into the most sinister corners of the Festival to unravel the horrifying truth.

I started thinking about Cirque de Freak by Darren Shan the moment I read the description. Purely because of a creepy carnival. I’ve never read that series by him but I have read a few books of his series The Demonata.

I’m really enjoying Sorina’s illusion powers. I like how she can make them touchable. I’m already debating if she might somehow be summoning her ancestors, maybe even pulling people from other dimensions, or just being so creative that she can create almost anything and make it real. Or even unknowingly putting a bit of herself into each creation, giving them life that they may grow and develop on their own. Either way it sounds like it would be pretty good. I’m curious to see what all powers might reside deeper in the carnival. And just what kind of power is able to kill illusions.

--Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju volume 2 by Haruko Kumota Yotaro has been accepted as Yakumo’s apprentice and a member of his household. Taking in this young man forces Yakumo to confront his past and promises that were left unfulfilled. He thinks of his friend and rival, Sukeroku. He remembers growing up in a Japan changing after the war. And of a woman named Miyokichi.

The second volume of the manga that the hit anime of the same name is based on. Although this series is about Yotaro and Konatsu (a woman who would like to perform rakugo but is stopped by her legal guardian; Yakumo, because he believes in the old style that prevents woman from peforming rakugo) learning rakugo and performing. It is also a tale of Yakumo as he confronts his past.

--Fairy Tail volume 61 by Hiro Mashima “The meaning of family. As the most powerful wizards of Fairy Tail face off against the remaining members of The Twelve, their hearts, relationships, and skills will be put to the test. The battle between Erza and Irene reaches an emotional conclusion, Gray shows how far he’s willing to go to save his dearest friends, and the love of a father sparks a shocking revelation from August. As Natsu and Zeref’s showdown approaches, both enemies and friends must ask themselves who their true family is!”

Honestly, I have fallen behind on Fairy Tail. The last volume I read was 54. I’m slowly trying to catch back up. It’s not that I don’t like the series anymore, although I don’t know if I could still call it one of my top current favorites. I had to cut back due to when I left one of my part-time jobs. Although the one I kept had fewer hours, it allowed me to focus on college and my homework more. I don’t really know what is going on currently, except for the fact that it is near the end of the final arc. I want to be all caught up by the time the final volume; 63, comes out.

--First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy “It started for pranks, fun, and forever memories. A secret society - for the four of us. The rules: Never Lie. Never tell. Love each other. We made the pledge and danced under the blood moon on the meteorite in the orchard. In the spot we found the dead girl five years earlier. And discovered the ancient drawings way before that. Nothing could break the four of us apart - I thought. But then, others wanted in. Our seaside town had secrets. History. We wanted revenge. We broke the rules. We lied. We told. We loved each other too much, not enough, and in ways we weren’t supposed to. Our invention ratcheted out of control. What started as a secret society, ended as justice. Revenge. Death. Rebellion.”

The first time I looked this book up, I wasn’t too crazy. Labeled it as a maybe. I don’t know if Goodreads had a different description or if I just liked it more the second time around. It sounds like it could be a pretty good mystery. My guess right now, is that by creating IV they might have gotten the idea from a old group who called themselves the same. And somehow in the process maybe committed some kind of magic ritual that maybe activated some old ghosts from the previous group. I hope it has something to do with an ancient civilization.

--Generation Witch volume 1 by Isaki Uta One percent of the population is made up of witches. Some look up to witches, some envy them. But these abilities can sometimes be more of a curse than a blessing, as any witch knows. Growing up requires a lot of luck and effort for a teenager, so what happens when you throw spirits, magic, and broomsticks into the mix?

I couldn’t really find any information regarding this manga other than the description. It appears to be pretty new. It sounds like a cute coming of age story and it kind of makes me think of Flying Witch; which I have neither seen nor read but I would like to, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. In terms of a young witch trying to learn her craft throughout her day to day life.

--Strange Practice (paperback) by Vivian Shaw Greta Helsing uses her family’s highly specialized, and highly peculiar, medical practice as a doctor to the undead. Keeping the supernatural community not-alive in London has been the Helsing’s specialty for generations. She treats vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. It’s a quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta’s been groomed into since childhood. Quiet until a group of murderous monks appears, killing human and undead Londoners. It’s up to Greta to use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice and her life.

I’m a fan of seeing supernatural creatures just trying to live their lives. Where not all of them are necessarily evil. Some just want to live. I’m gonna point the blame at Inuyasha on this one cause I think that’s the first place I ever ran across the idea of not all monsters are evil. I think. Plus, I just like seeing the twist of a Helsing helping supernatural creatures instead of hunting them.

In Movies --Gifted A story of a man raising his very intelligent niece after her mother died so that she may live an ordinary life. His mother finds out where they live, believes her granddaughter’s talents are being wasted, and tries to gain custody of her.

It was a really cute story starring Chris Evans. And Mckenna Grace was adorable as Mary. I loved their characters relationship in the film. It was a very touching movie.

--Ghost in the Shell This entry will contain some spoilers at the end about the end of the movie. You have been warned.

The live action adaptation of the amazing manga, anime film, and anime series. On IMDb the description of the live action version is as follows: “In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world’s most dangerous criminals”

Really just putting this up because I’ll be getting it someday to be able to finish my collection. That’s about it. The effects of this movie were very well done. I really appreciated the fact that there were references to each form of this series. I remember seeing scenes that I know were only in the manga, some scenes that were in the original film, some scenes from S.A.C., and some nods to Arise. I had some issues with what they did to the story. I love GitS. The anime is easily one of my top favorites and I have a lot of respect and love towards Major Motoko Kusanagi. I tried my very best to see the movie as its own universe. Easy enough since each form has been its own universe. But there were just some things here and there that I couldn’t get past. Which I could go into all the details but that should probably be on a post more dedicated to it. But I will mention that I was slightly disappointed that she was not shot in the head at the end. In each other version, that happened at least once. And they ruined my OTP. Due to plot, I gathered that the Major is really aged somewhere between 16 and 18. While Batou looks like he’s in his 30′s. I can’t approve of it. They ruined my ship in this version and for that I will never forgive them.

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