#wow I have a lot of strong feelings about interior design choices | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

multiphandomunnies · 4 years

Text

Mayday||Yoohyeon pt2.

Admin: Heather

Warnings: Spiders are mentioned. Very briefly but still ^^

Words: 4737

Previous chapter Masterlist Next chapter

“I see you didn’t change your mind.”

You didn’t even flinch, anticipating Handong to appear the second you stepped inside this building.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

The instructions were simple yet unusual. You have been requested to come to the mansion in real life and wait for everything to start. What was that everything? You had no idea.

Handong was looking at you from the mirror. Her demeanor was more serious today, not even a ghost of smile on her face. It mirrored the nervousness bubbling in your stomach. Entering the Dreamworld was not a stroll in a park. Nobody could predict the outcome.

Maybe that was the reason your heart kept pounding and you were getting goosebumps. Or maybe it was just Handong. What would happen to her if you failed? What would happen to all of them? Could you bear the responsibility for their fate? That is, if you lived to tell the tale.

“Go upstairs, Y/N.” Handong requested softly. “It’s almost time.”

You nodded and moved towards the stairs, getting more anxious with every step. What was waiting for you in Dreamworld? Yoohyeon? There was no guarantee that she was even there. She could have been wiped from existence forever or pushed into the deepest corner of reality.

The room designated for the ritual was spacious and almost hollow looking. Passed decades left their mark on the interior design, especially compared to how it looked in your dreams. It certainly didn’t have the unsettling emptiness, although the constant feeling of some presence also didn’t feel that amazing.

“Are you ready?” Handong asked gently from another mirror. You turned around to look at her with a slight shrug that was supposed to look convincing but probably made you appear pathetic. She frowned and crossed her arms.

“I really wish you weren’t a part of this.”

“Wow, thanks.”

She scoffed and cracked a humorless smile. Her whole expression was filled with exasperation and exhaustion. Anybody would be able to tell that she didn’t want to be here as well. But unlike you, she had no choice. To be fair, Handong wouldn’t get into this mess voluntarily. She was way too smart for that. You however were ready to jump into the Dreamworld no matter the consequences.

“Let’s just hope for the best.”

Not exactly the most optimistic statement, but still sufficient. You had no idea what was waiting for you on the other side. Nobody did.

Handong kept staring at you intensely probably waiting for some kind of comment, but there wasn’t much to say. Everything might have been a trap since the beginning. Could you trust these girls? Any of them might have been waiting for your mistake and drag you into the pits of hell. Or even worse.

“I’m glad we’re not on the same side of the mirror.” Handong suddenly spoke up and you looked at her in question. “Because I would have dragged you as far away from here as possible.”

She looked down as if to not see your reaction. Or maybe she was ashamed of her words. They weren’t very fitting for the nightmare aesthetic of their group. But if you thought about it, Handong always had this certain warmth to her. Of course there was still an aura of otherworldliness that served as a constant reminder you were dealing with a force you couldn’t fully comprehend. However in moments like that, you could see the side that has been buried under loads of secrets, fear and the inherent mystery.

“You’re staring.”

“It’s hard not to.”

A quiet chuckle was another crack in the intangible persona. It seemed as if it was on the brink of shattering and at this point you weren’t afraid of seeing what was waiting on the other side. Handong seemed so close and maybe if you tried hard enough you would actually be able to move past the mental barrier and get to her.

“Don’t.” her whisper made you snap out of the trance. You quickly moved back your hand that you unknowingly extended, almost brushing the glass with your fingertips. “I wish you could stay this way. It gives me the slightest chance to occasionally also feel like that.”

“Feel how?”

“Human.”

Before you got a chance to answer a sound of bell ringing interrupted the serene silence. You glanced to the side and saw that the clock froze just minutes before midnight. The lights flickered as a slight gust of wind passed through the room. If you saw that in a movie, you would roll your eyes at the predictability. Experiencing it first-hand made you reconsider making fun of horror film characters who went right into danger.

Handong broke the eye contact and turned a little. A shiver ran down your spine when one of the girls passed behind her in the mirror. You recognized Gahyeon who paid no attention to you and continued walking.

“Showtime.” Handong said with a sigh. “Be careful.”

The second she left, you felt all the courage starting to evaporate. Were you actually going to enter some unstable dimension with a mysterious Nightmare Weaver on the prowl? You turned around, only to catch a glimpse of Dami staring at you from the mirror on the other side of the room. She didn’t appear ashamed to be caught, nor did she look away. Almost like she wanted you to notice her in the first place, which surprisingly didn’t seem as creepy as it should. Her behavior didn’t make your skin crawl despite the constant lurking in the shadows and laconic manner of speaking. It didn’t seem as if she was stalking you. Observing, maybe. Definitely judging though.

Maybe she was trying to find any signs of hesitation in your face. Or the slightest inclination that you could possibly betray them and destroy everything they had been working on. Whatever it was, Dami seemed to be satisfied with what she noticed as she continued walking, disappearing from the mirror

A high pitched sound of bell rang through the air, followed with a brief flicker of the lights. In normal circumstances you could have blamed it on a faulty light bulb but the whole spectacle around you just screamed paranormal. Bordering on the typical horror movie aesthetic but it was a completely different experience when you weren’t just looking at it on a screen.

“Stand still and close your eyes.”

You flinched and look around at every mirror in the room. The voice belonged to Jiu, there was no doubt but she was nowhere to be seen, probably standing out of the view on purpose. You weren’t sure what it was but this girl always had a purpose and strong mastermind tendencies.

Deciding not to go against her, you closed your eyes feeling your breath hitch at the sudden gust of wind. Anything or anything could have been in this room with you and take advantage of your defenseless state. Maybe one of them was already waiting to pounce on you and claim your soul.

“Don’t open them.” Jiu’s warning came just in time as the nerves were getting the best of you. “No matter what happens, don’t open your eyes until I tell you to.”

Wow, she sure was a control freak. You quickly abandoned that thought though, just In case Jiu turned out to be a mind reader of some sorts. That wouldn’t be a big surprise at this point.

Another ring of the bell could be heard and the wind intensified. To your surprise it was neither cold or warm, completely devoid of any sensations other than the motion. You could feel it move your shirt and graze your cheeks but none of the brief touches lingered. As if it wasn’t tangible, just there.

The sound of the bell was replaced by a steady ringing that could be almost considered a hum, a bit similar to white noise that successfully made even the slightest background noises fade into oblivion. It struck you that every single one of your senses was getting dulled, leaving you with a strange feeling of disconnection from your surroundings. Even the wind stopped blowing some time ago.

You thought that maybe that was the reason Jiu didn’t want you to open your eyes too soon. Because there was literally nothing around you and it would be way too easy to get overpowered by that. The Dreamworld might have sucked your whole self into its depths and nobody would ever realize.

There was no way to tell how much time have passed before the silence was suddenly broken by a calm voice. Surprisingly you weren’t even startled by the unexpected interruption. The words sounded like they came from a distance even though you knew Jiu was just a couple steps away from you.

“Open your eyes.” She requested and you followed immediately, expecting to be blinded due to having your eyes shut for quite some time. To your surprise there was no sensory overload almost as if your insensitivity remained. You could barely even feel that your feet were on the ground. Everything seemed completely surreal but also made sense in a way that made you question your judgement.

“I know it’s a lot but we’re kind of on a deadline here.” Siyeon quipped from the side, earning a scoff from Handong.

“Let them process.” She hissed.

You looked at Siyeon first, finding her without the signature smirk or the dangerous glint in her eyes. She was deadly serious and probably growing impatient as well. The red suit only highlighted the determination displayed on her features. Another interesting thing was her positioning. Siyeon was standing with her arms by the sides of her body, not facing you and looking straight ahead.

It didn’t take you long to realize all of the girls were scattered around the room in a pattern that seemed random but was probably anything other than that. Their ritual probably required this type of odd setting, with each participant turned in a different direction. You were marveled by their ability to stay still without fidgeting.

Dami also didn’t make eye contact with you or even acknowledged your presence in any way, so you shifted your gaze to the side and gasped when you noticed

“Yoohyeon.”

She was sitting on a chair with her eyes closed and no expression on her face, looking exactly like when you last saw her. Although this time she was accompanied by Jiu standing closely behind her and slightly to the side so that Yoohyeon’s body wasn’t positioned right in front of her.

“Search for her.” Jiu didn’t explain anything to you. She was sporting the same dull expression like the rest of the group. “Just go and see what you can find.”

You didn’t comment that finding someone who was right in front of you seemed like a stupid command. There was probably some kind of powerful magic involved and your mortal head was in no way prepared to comprehend it.

“I can go wherever?” you asked to make sure there were no rules that could bring doom on all of you when broken.

“Let the Dreamworld unfold in front of you.”

“But don’t lose focus.” Handong had to quip in with a last warning. You hated that you couldn’t look into her eyes in search for some courage and comfort. It was time to focus on the task at hand.

Realizing that you were wasting time, you decided to leave the room through a door behind you. You couldn’t resist the urge to turn around one last time and the sight of Yoohyeon’s still figure gave you the last push you needed. She needed someone to save her. And you were ready to be that person.

Exploring the mansion in your new oneiric state turned out to be a completely different experience. You could feel the omnipresent energy vibrating in the air but it couldn’t touch you. Not quite. As if you were floating through a complex system of energy that softly opened in front of you, lightly touching you but never staying too long. You wondered what would happen if you allowed it to linger.

You pushed the thought away with some effort. Magnetic pull of your surroundings couldn’t distract you from the mission. Siyeon was right. You had to stay perfectly focused on your goal if this was supposed to work out.

In order to not drift away, you attempted to ground yourself in the moment by channelling all attention onto one of the objects in the room. It should have soothed your racing mind at least for a little while. So you approached an antique looking camera lying on the table. This type of equipment belonged in a house of someone roughly the age of your grandparents and had no actual purpose in this day and age. How long have these girls been trapped in their prison?

Something within urged you to turn the camera on. You felt as if you knew exactly how to operate it despite never touching this kind of thing in your life. The moment your fingers made contact with the smooth surface, the world swirled like it did when the ritual first started. You closed your eyes instinctively but this time the sensation was significantly weaker. When you looked at the table, the camera was gone but on the other side of the room stood

”Sua?” The girl tore her gaze away from a stack of papers to glance at you and nodded as if your presence here was the most normal thing on the planet. ”Where is the camera?”

Sua narrowed her eyes a bit and stroked her chin. Her casual answer made your blood run cold.

”Yoohyeon took it.” A slight smirk ghosted on her lips. ”It’s time for another shoot.”

The way her replied sounded assured you that you didn’t want to know what this “shoot” was supposed to be. So you nodded quickly and left the room in order to find Yoohyeon. It didn’t even concern you how she left the chair. Handong informed you that the Dreamworld consisted of many layers and parallel meanders that you could get lost in, not even getting close to what you were looking for

”Yoohyeon?” you called, turning to the right. How did you know it was the right way? Hard to say, but you had no doubt. However, there was no reply from the girl. You tried to search every room but you also had to keep moving. The fruitless search filled you with frustration but then you caught a glimpse of a black, flowy skirt in one of the rooms. You took a step back to enter but a familiar shift morphed your surroundings and you were once again standing with a group of six girls.

”Handong, they were doing a good job.” Jiu remarked with a hint of warning in her tone. You glanced at Handong only for her to sigh and shake her head slightly. She must have been responsible for the sudden shift, probably trying to keep you as safe as possible.

Once again you left the room to find a trace leading you to Yoohyeon but this time you felt a strange need to go the opposite way. Since listening to the intuition proved to be effective before, you moved along the hallway, trying to figure out what your gut was telling you.

It was an empowering feeling to know exactly where to go. As if someone was leading you by the hand the whole time and showing you the right path. This time your destination turned out to be a darkroom filled with scattered photos and broken glass. Further investigation proved that the lightbulb has been shattered, making developing of the pictures impossible. Was it an accidental damage?

You decided to examine the photographs on the table. Most of them were faded and dull probably due to the passage of time that seemingly took its toll on everything in the mansion except for the seven girls. There were some pictures of them too and it was unbelievable how much they contrasted with the people performing a ritual only a couple rooms away.

The first photograph showed the faces you were already familiar with but the difference in their expression was striking. There were no sights of fiery glares or the icy indifference. Dangerous smirks and stoic seriousness were replaced by innocent grins that brought lively sparkles to the soulless eyes you were so used to. The scribble at the bottom read Bora and Singnie accompanied with a little drawing of a heart.

Second picture must have been taken in the room that years later served as a makeshift workplace for the mysterious investigator. What used to be a sunny library got turned into a gloomy room full of evidence and coffee stained notes describing every detail of the mystery.

The girl in the photo seemed to be completely invested in the book in her hands. A rouge strand of hair fell onto her forehead but she didn’t seem to notice. She probably had no idea the picture was taken in the first place which allowed the photographer to capture a moment of uninterrupted peace. The caption stated “Yoob being a nerd” and you smiled slightly at the playful banter.

But the small moment of happiness quickly faded away and morphed into a bitter sense of injustice. Every innocent caption felt like being stabbed with no way to numb the pain in between each attack.

Gahyeonie in flowers

Sweet child with chubby cheeks in a flower crown with her nose scrunched in the most adorable way. Unrecognizable during the discussion two days ago.

Bora’s birthday surprise

Sua beaming at her friends and smudging icing on Yoohyeon’s cheek. The smile was nowhere to be seen at this point of you knowing her.

Siyeon’s first concert

Slight blush on her cheeks and hands still on the piano keyboard. Soft, innocent and as threatening as a little puppy.

Bora and Dongie with a cat

Handong curled into Sua’s embrace with a serene expression and a glint in her eyes as she played with the small animal. Was that spark still there? You couldn’t tell.

Sore loser being a baby

Siyeon pouting as someone ruffled her hair, a deck of cards lying on the table in front of her.

Each one of the photographs brought you closer to tears as you tried to understand why these seven cheerful girls had to get trapped by a curse and see their own home, a silent witness of so many happy memories turn into a trap bounding them as it decayed.

Minji and Yoohyeon

You froze. The caption was simple but you couldn’t agree more with whoever decided to phrase it this way. Maybe it was the way Yoohyeon’s smile lightened up the whole room. Or how Jiu’s eyes were filled with so much unspoken affection that it could be barely contained. Or it was something about the way their hands were intertwined and the distance between them so small.

It was love. As simple as that. You didn’t care about the nature of their relationship, you didn’t need that information. They loved each other and they loved deeply. Just Minji and Yoohyeon.

You put the picture away with trembling hands, the image burned into your mind permanently. How could you not help them find the missing piece of their puzzle after seeing this? How could you not want to see these girls happy again? Did Minji smile like that since they got cursed? Did she smile at all?

To distract yourself from these thoughts you picked up a random picture from another pile and gasped when you saw your face. However you didn’t have time to analyze the meaning of the discovery when suddenly the lightbulb was working again, drowning the room in red light. You weren’t alone anymore.

Siyeon was standing by the table, carefully examining a roll of film. Nothing changed for a while before she put it away and moved to take one of the photographs hanging from the string. She examined it with a slight smile and waved her hand as if motioning someone to come closer. Suddenly Handong and Gahyeon joined her, standing one on each side of the girl as she held the picture up.

You crept a bit closer and realize in shock that this was your photo. Just like the camera before, it was gone from your hand and right now the trio looked at it with unreadable but mischievous looks on their faces. What was the meaning of this? What have they done to you? Neither of the questions got answered before the picture burst into flames and your vision turned hazy again.

“Handong stop this!” Jiu was clearly getting angry. Her stoic expression was gone as she extended her hand to the side.

“Y/N is drifting away!” Handong argued without moving from her designated spot.

“You’re doing more harm than good.”

It seemed like Handong was capable of doing something that kept pulling you away from the next levels of Dreamworld. While you were grateful for her care, you could also feel your frustration growing. You could handle this, she just needed to let you do your thing in peace.

“Handong.” You said and her shoulders tensed at the sound. “It’s okay. Trust me.”

She didn’t say anything and you would have thought that she didn’t even hear you if it wasn’t for a tear rolling down her face. Or maybe it was the lighting and your stupid feelings messing you.

Jiu unclenched her fist and salt started flowing steadily to the ground. The lights flickered and suddenly a dark, shadowy figure emerged from Yoohyeon, looming dangerously over the room before it flew away. It took a split second for you to make a decision and bolt after it.

Overcome with a bitter sweet feeling of déjà vu, you chased the smoky creature through the hallways. Some twisted sense of satisfaction came with being a hunter instead of its helpless prey. This time nobody was on your tail. It was up to you to finish this once and for all.

Even when the shadow tweaked something within the Dreamworld you easily slipped into a higher plane, intuitively getting a hold of this. Gaining even the slightest bit of control over the powerful dimension filled you with endless satisfaction.

Eventually the thick smoke turned into thin air in one of the rooms. You vaguely recognized it from somewhere but there was no time to dwell on interior design. Not when Yoohyeon was standing right in front of you, bowing respectfully.

“Please take a seat.” She motioned to a stool on your left and positioned herself behind a camera. The same one you noticed before.

Deciding to play along, you complied and sat comfortably. Yoohyeon smiled at you encouragingly and you awkwardly mirrored her expression. She seemed satisfied and clicked the button, making the light flash. And then it flashed again. No, it wasn’t the camera. The lights flickered as the whole roomed was flooded with the eerie blue hue you know all too well. Yoohyeon looked at you with fear evident in her eyes as she slowly backed out towards the wall. An enormous shadow of a spider appeared for a split second and you closed your eyes when a bright light almost blinded you.

A scream died in your throat when you noticed Yoohyeon’s unconscious form lying on the ground. You quickly dashed to help her, but instead of moving in her direction, you darted through another layer of Dreamworld. There was almost nothing here. As if you reached the final level and were currently standing on the edge of the world. White snow covered the ground and the sky swirled in different shades of blue that shimmered from time to time. The only distinctive object was a stone ring, covered almost completely in spiderwebs. The space felt hollow and empty.

“What?”

You turned around in shock and your jaw dropped. Yoohyeon was there, wearing exactly the same thing as the motionless figure on a chair back in the mansion. Could that mean the ritual worked? Was there a possibility that the shadow monstrosity was finally gone and the curse got lifted? All the potential questions died on your lips when Yoohyeon grabbed your arm, tearful eyes bearing into your own pleadingly.

“Run.” She whispered.

“Huh?”

“Run. Just leave. Run as fast as you can. You shouldn’t be here. Tell them… tell Minji…”

You blinked and almost yelped when the familiar six girls appeared in front of you. However this time the setting stayed exactly the same. You were all occupying the hollow snow dessert. Even Yoohyeon was there, laying on a stone pedestal as the group made a circle around her form.

“Jiu?” Siyeon inquired, clearly astonished and a bit out of breath.

“Yes.” The leader whispered and looked up to the sky. “Y/N did you find her?”

“No.”

You flinched at the sudden interruption. For a second you were back with Yoohyeon, but the vision cut back to Jiu immediately.

“You can’t help.”

“Can you bring her back?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“She must be close.”

“I can’t.”

“Y/N?” Handong’s calm tone ripped you out of the dual haze brought upon you by Jiu and Yoohyeon overlapping. You looked at her, grateful for the intervention. “It’s almost over.”

And then you saw it. A vibrant blue glow illuminating the scene and highlighting the already divine physique of the girls in front of you. Slowly you turned around only to face a swirling stream of light that seemed to be gently pulling you in.

“The final part.” Jiu informed. You could barely hear her, mesmerized by the phenomena in front of you. Even after all these nights of paranormal experiences, the close presence of something so purely magical took your breath away. “She’s there. I know.”

You tore your gaze away and looked back to see their faces. It was impossible to judge what Siyeon and Gahyeon felt as they had their backs turned in your direction. But you noticed Sua and Dami looking at Yoohyeon, completely focused. However while Sua seemed detached, almost defeated, Dami seemed to be the calmest out of everyone. Almost as if she knew exactly what was going to happen.

The other two were looking right at you, both expressing two completely different desires. Jiu seemed to be wordlessly urging you to step through the portal and bring Yoohyeon back. Handong on the other hand was giving you a patient and understanding look, laced with a bit of desperation. She wanted you to back out. Even at the end.

“Sorry.” You whispered to no one in particular and crossed the magical barrier with closed eyes.

The other side looked exactly the same in an almost disturbing way. Something seemed off. Terribly off.

“Yoohyeon?” you called, frantically looking around until you caught a sight of familiar silver hair. She was running towards you and you almost laughed in joy that everything was finally coming to an end. And then you noticed her expression. A sinister smirk played on her features, making your skin crawl. In a second it switched into a conflicted mixture of fear, disbelief and hope as Yoohyeon extended her hand in your direction.

You hesitated. There was no way that terrifying smile from before was your imagination playing around. It was way too creepy. But then you remembered the small glimmer of hope in Minji’s eyes and decided to take the risk. Your hand was slightly trembling as you reached towards Yoohyeon.

And then a low rumble rolled through the air as you felt the air getting thicker, almost engulfing you like a blanket. The portal was closing. Panic flashed on Yoohyeon’s face and she quickened her pace, struggling to get to you on time. You reached out even farther when a white light blinded you completely and a yanking sensation rippled through the earth, forcing you to close your eyes.

Silence. Black spots attacked your vision when you finally opened your eyes again. You looked around dumbly as the clarity returned. The mansion. You were standing in the center of the room in the same spot as at the beginning of the ritual. But something felt different.

You were back to the starting point.

Alone.

#dreamcatcher #kpop #dreamcatcher scenario #dreamcatcher imagine #dreamcatcher angst #dreamcatcher yoohyeon #kpop angst #kpop scenario #kpop imagine #dreamcatcher au #dreamcatcher nightmare au

48 notes · View notes

kimshavacado · 5 years

Text

Dead Heat Ch. 2

Pairing: Min Yoongi x reader

Genre: Yet another Arranged Marriage/Mafia AU

Summary: Three extremely powerful families with enough power to bring down entire governments, all with vastly different views on how things should be run. The Min family thinks everything can be solved with money, the Jeon family think everything can be solved with violence, and the Kim family relies more on thought which leads to a lack of action. When Kim Y/N loses her father, she only has one way to save herself and her family. But it involves having to give herself over to a stranger. How the hell is she not supposed to punch him in his stupid rich face?

Dead Heat Masterlist

Warnings: Language

A/N: Yay we finally have some Yoongi in this chapter, as well as the scene I’ve been looking forward to. Here’s to strong female leads! Enjoy lovelies.

Chapter 2: Just As Much A Queen

Most of the next day is spent with boxes and memories. You are packing up and leaving your home forever. You’d never really lived anywhere else, not even been to many other people’s houses. It was a strange concept to grasp, leaving and not coming back. You aren’t too sad to leave all of the memories, most of them not that fond anyway. But instead of reminiscing on old feelings you keep one goal in your mind: Get what you deserve. After that talk last night with Jimin, you’ve made the decision to play along. It’s really all that you can do for now before you can find a way to take back the family.

After going through the house for the better part of the day, you come up with a lousy two and a half boxes of belongings. It’s kind of sad to realize that the few things you care about in this world can fit into such a small space. But you don’t want to take anything that will bring up any bad memories of your father. Things like that could end up distracting you and you still have to keep your eyes on the prize.

Jimin picks you up in the early evening to take you to the venue of the “event.” To call it a wedding would be comical. The contracts had already been signed and this party is more of a formality for the family. It’s being held at the Min mansion which you find is undoubtedly, the largest house you’ve ever seen. Jimin gushes at the sight, talk about how great the party will probably be. Unfortunately, you aren’t able to get a good look at the interior when you arrive for the first time before you are ushered away down a long hallway towards the other side of the building. There you are led into a dressing room where some women are waiting.

When you walk in, you pretend not to notice the fact that all the girls stare at Jimin. He is already dressed for the event and honestly, looking fine as hell. This is something he gets a lot of and you’ve gotten used to others gawking in his presence. If only these poor girls knew.

The girls help you into a dark blue dress and help you appear presentable in between fawning over Jimin. Once they’re done, they leave you and Jimin alone in the room. As you look in the mirror you find yourself surprised. A bit of a smile finds its way onto your face as you admire the choice of clothing.

“A bit full of ourselves, are we?” Jimin comments, noticing you admiring yourself.

“It’s not that, it’s just… blue, not white. It makes it seem like less of a wedding.” You’re a bit perplexed as to who had picked it out. You turn back to Jimin. “And you’re one to talk.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault the girls love me. Unlike some people, I don’t need dresses and makeup to look good.”

You’re about to tackle him right there until you hear a knock on the door. It’s time to go.

You’re drunk. Not completely shitfaced but enough. It definitely helps you get through the night, though. Most of the people here, you’ve never met before, only occasionally recognizing some members of your family. There’s no one you’re really close with though, except for Jimin, who you currently find partying hard on the other side of the room probably four or five cocktails in. He’s always the life of the party on nights like this.

The venue is perfect for a party, and you may have enjoyed yourself in a different situation. The hall is large and grand, and could probably fit over a hundred people. Large round tables are scattered across the floor with a main table towards the front where you are sat. From your position, you are able to admire the grandness of the room. At first glance, the ceiling appears overly adorned in gold. There’s classical paintings and strange images that seem entirely too distracting. Then you notice the background, stars. Behind all of the pictures and gold is a night sky that stretches to each end of the room. It’s a shame so much of it is covered by other paintings. You think it’d be poetically beautiful to paint an entire ceiling as a night sky.

Your thoughts are interrupted by congratulations from Jin who has come to your and Yoongi’s table. You smile and thank him and as he turn away and heads towards the other board members, your eyes send daggers at the back of his head.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you if you scowl like that your face will stick?” That’s right, he’s here. It takes every bit of your being to not make a snappy comeback, and all you can do is look away from him. You need him to tolerate you if you’re ever going to get your position back. Who knows, he could probably help you. But you know he won’t because you know exactly the kind of guy he is. He just shrugs off your reaction and goes back to staring straight ahead like you. What a lively couple we are.

This entire party is for everyone but you two, and you get more and more relieved as the guest leave. Jimin is long gone, taken home by the driver after passing out around the desert table an hour ago. You’re about to fall asleep while watching the stragglers when you hear Yoongi’s voice next to you.

“Get up, I’ll show you your room.” He says above you. For a moment you sag lower in your chair. It’s like every time he talks, you remember you’re supposed to be married now and become filled with dread. Still, you silently get up and follow him out of the grand hall down two separate corridors before you find yourself in a section of the house that gives off more homely vibes. He points to the door behind you.

“That is your room. It’s one of the places you’re allowed to go. You’re also allowed to walk back to the main part of the house, but nowhere else. My room and my study are on the other side of the hallway.” He points to a set of doors towards the end of the hall. “Never go in there, do you understand?” You nod. “Don’t leave the house unless you tell me first, I’ll have a guard everywhere with you.” At this your face changes.

“I’m not allowed to leave?” You ask.

“Not unless I say so sweetheart.” Damn he really is a cocky ass. He raises his eyebrows. “Do you understand?” He mockingly asks. The nerve on this guy!

“Yes sir.” You say a little too sarcastically complete with a salute. His eyebrows furrow as his face twists in confusion. You don’t give him the opportunity to question your weird response as you rush past the door behind you, slamming it shut to separate yourself from him.

You hadn’t seen him in the last few days, which isn’t something you’re too torn up about. You did, however, find yourself bored out of your mind. All you’ve done for the last few days is read, watch TV, and sleep. You now wish you had brought more things from home instead of leaving everything that could distract you from your goal. You’re not going anywhere with it now anyway, what were you supposed to do, just go to the Kims and demand that Jin give you your place? It’d be easier if your captor was on your side. But nothing will work anyway if you die of boredom first.

You’ve tried to go find more to do but are always stopped by this guard who seems to pop out of nowhere as soon as you think about breaking the rules by leaving your “designated areas.” Doing nothing productive has left you feeling drained. You want to see Jimin, but you haven’t heard from him since the party. You probably understood why he didn’t contact you the first day, probably too hungover to leave his bed. But after that, you started to get worried. It was unlike Jimin to suddenly stop talking to you, he’d want to know everything about your new life.

After a week, a Netflix binge, and about 40 phone calls that Jimin didn’t pick up, you start to panic on the inside. Surely if something had happened to him, you would know about it right? All you could do for all these days is reassure yourself. But it’s eating you up inside and you have to know. So you leave your room determined to only return with answers.

“Hey there.” The guard says, already standing to hover over you as soon as you’re through the threshold of your doorway. He’s attempting to establish dominance. So you, in turn, fix your posture to mean business

“I need to go see my friend.” You say up to him.

“Sorry,” He says, clearly not meaning it, “no can do.” What? Why not? It’s not like it has anything to do with Yoongi.

“It’s an emergency, and he’s really important to me.”

“Hmm. No.” He says again, almost sing-song. Wow.

“Are you kidding me?” You say, your obedient façade starting to break.

“Look kid, I can’t let you see or contact anyone, at least for now. Boss’s orders.”

Well now you’re upset for even more reasons. If they aren’t letting you contact anyone, maybe the issue is on your end and Jimin isn’t getting any calls from you. This could be bad, what if he thinks you’re dead or something? You two are all each other have, he’d be as broken as you are right now.

“Where is Yoongi?” You aggressively ask the large man in front of you.

“Busy. In a meeting.”

“But he’s here.” The guard seems confused by your statement and before you know it, you’re sweeping your leg under his and pushing his head towards the ground. It hits with a thud and he stays there.

Oops. Well you did say you wouldn’t go back to your room without answers.

You leave the confinements of the living section of the mansion and look for the place where business is conducted. Let’s just say, if someone were to see you walking through the house, it would look like a wild animal angrily looking for prey. You’re bursting through doors and making a ruckus. Every time you find an empty meeting room, the emotions in you get more intense. You feel the physical and metaphorical separation between you and the one person you care about as well as the person keeping you from him. Who cares about what Yoongi thinks of you anymore, he won’t be of any help anyway. You want some damn answers.

When you reach the far end of the building you come across a large set of double doors. You continue your rampage and burst through only to find a large group of very intimidating looking men standing around a large table in the middle of the room. Definitely giving off evil vibes.

“Y/n!? What- How’d you get here?” Ah there he is, just the person you wanted to see.

“Let me leave.”

“What?”

“I have had enough of this crap, I can’t even contact anyone? What the hell?”

“Y/N we will talk about this later, as you can see, I’m a bit busy.”

“Did you do something to Jimin?” His face changes. Great.

Never once have you felt the way that you feel right now. Even when you think about all the shit you’ve been put through the past 24 years of your life, nothing comes close to the scale of the fire coursing through your vanes in this moment. It’s not just anger, it’s bigger and more complex. Sure, you’re angry. At your father, at yourself, and at the asshole standing in front of you. But there’s something that adds a hollowness to the melting pot of emotions inside of you. Loneliness. Helplessness. That man’s stupid face as it looks at you certainly doesn’t help. He has this confused expression that’s just dying to be wiped off of his face by a sharp cut of your hand. It seems comical how dull someone could be. You feel everything piling up to the point where you’re about to explode. But instead of keeping face as usual you storm toward the man with fire in your eyes.

You stand directly in front of him, probably closer than you should, and steel yourself, looking directly into his eyes.

“I want you to understand something Yoongi.” It’s frightening how quickly you created this aura around yourself that would induce fear in anyone. “I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, as I’m sure you can imagine. But every time something stands in my way,” You lower your voice. “I move it.”

Yoongi seems to be frozen in awe with his mouth slightly open so you continue. “That being said, I’m not your pet, I’m not your wife, and I’m certainly not your prisoner. You and I are the same.” You jut your finger into his chest when you say this. “I’m just as much a queen as you are a king, only I deserve it more. So I want you to know that if you stand in the way of me and the things I love, I’ll cut you down. I don’t care who the hell you think you are.” When he remains silent you turn to leave and walk past all the men who just overheard your little tantrum. Before you can exit the room, Yoongi finally speaks up.

“Y/N, trust me. You don’t want to see him right now.”

“Did you not listen to anything I just said!?” Seriously, how dull is he?

“Jimin isn’t who you think he is Y/N.”

A/N: I love to finally write Y/N as an angry character. I haven’t seen enough Y/N’s in this genre that are rough around the edges. I can’t wait to see more aggression!

Next Chapter

#min yoongi #min yoongi fanfic #park jimin #bts yoongi #bts jimin #yoongi x reader #jimin fluff #yoongi smut #bts fanfic #bts smut #bts fluff #bts scenarios #bts imagines

339 notes · View notes

emma-what-son · 4 years

Text

Little Women reviews are in

I’ve noticed that some reviews are just simply overwhelmingly positive. I just don’t trust that. There has to be something you disliked! The pace, any changes the director has made... Something! Anyway, as always I’ll only post reviews mentioning Emma.

Vanityfair: I won’t go through all the other players in the ensemble, but most of them inhabit their roles with just the right pep and insight. (Only Watson, as dour eldest sister Meg, runs into some flatness.) Gerwig has a lively, natural directorial rapport with actors, creating comfortable spaces in which they can more easily form organic bonds. Little Women is nicely textured in that way, possessed of all the easy chatter and squabble of people who genuinely know one another.

Indiewire: “Little Women” isn’t always perfect: A few line readings fall flat — whenever Watson slips out of her American accent, all bets are off — and a handful of characters aren’t given nearly as much dimension as the sisters. Laura Dern’s soft-hearted Marmee is almost too good to be believed, and Bob Odenkirk’s boisterous initial introduction as the March family patriarch feels out of place (though it’s later redeemed during one of the film’s more amusing final sequences). And yet Gerwig and her girls know the hearts and minds of the sisters through and through. “Little Women” is about them above all else.

Empireonline: And while Meg gets a few good scenes, she’s still underserved compared with her younger sisters.

TheHollywoodreporter: Among the large cast, Watson somewhat fades into the background, possibly because the pretty, vivacious girl makes way so early for the thoroughly good wife who married for love, not material comfort. Dern at times seems a tad contemporary as Marmee, but then that could partly be because her delectable skewering of a quintessential L.A. type in Marriage Story remains so fresh in my mind. But even with limited screen time, all the actors register as fully formed characters.

Variety: A long way from her days as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, Watson portrays Meg as the sister who most knows what she wants, which makes the character’s choice feel like less of a compromise. Pugh has the tricky part, since so many find Amy’s personality off-putting, whereas she makes it possible to understand the difficulties of living in her sister’s shadow.

Screendaily: But this is an all-star marquee line-up. A somewhat miscast Emma Watson - she’s just too modern a presence - plays Meg, Eliza Scanlen is Beth, Laura Dern is Marmee while Meryl Streep plays Aunt March. On the male side, Timothee Chalamet is Laurie, with Louis Garrel playing Professor Bhaer and James Norton as Mr Brooke, the hard-up apple of Meg’s eye. The hair department must have worked overtime.

Screenrant: But while Jo is perhaps the closest Little Women gets to a single protagonist, and Ronan carries that starring role well, Gerwig's script makes sure to give each of the March sisters' their due. Watson brings a great deal of depth and empathy to Meg, while there's a steel to Pugh's Amy that allows her to hold her own alongside Ronan's Jo in a way that's fascinating to watch. Scanlen's Beth has all the sweet charm that the youngest March sister needs. Dern and Meryl Streep round out the exceptionally strong main female cast, bringing warmth and cold sensibility, respectively.

Dailymail: So the performances are terrific across the board, and that includes Watson (who reportedly replaced Emma Stone). She’s a limited actress magicked by Hermione Granger’s wand into better roles than her talent deserves, but she’s perfectly lovely as Meg, the eldest sister.

Telegraph: Emma Watson, supplying her usual finished charm, has no challenge lending consistency to dutiful-but-dull Meg, the eldest; and Eliza Scanlen gives a pale vulnerability to sickly piano prodigy Beth, “the best of us”.

Nerdist: The film isn’t without its weaknesses. The back-and-forth editing is occasionally confusing, and sometimes hinders the power of Jo’s arc. Her growing dissatisfaction with her work and her isolating loneliness is powerful when chronological, and suffers a bit here interspersed with happy memories of togetherness. There’s also one puzzling addition to her relationship with Laurie that rings false to Alcott’s story and Jo’s character, although not detrimentally. Laura Dern’s Marmee feels a little too sparkly compared to the hard-worn and exhausted character of the book, and Emma Watson’s Meg fails to make much of an impression, though she has a few touching moments that contrast her desires with her sisters’.

Flickeringmyth: If anything, the only noticeable flaw with Little Women is that for anyone that’s not Jo or Amy, it feels like there should be more that was probably edited down to keep the running time from going any higher than 2 hours and 15 minutes. That goes for Meg’s relationship and inevitable marriage, the bad boy behavior of Laurie who doesn’t know how to deal with rejection at first (he decides to pursue Amy following that, with Florence Pugh eliciting a great deal of emotion and making a case for Best Supporting Actress choosing between lovers and what’s best for her own passions), and one or two more scenes centered on Beth.

Moviecitynews: Emily Watson seems to be the #2 little woman as Meg, but she unselfishly lets the second dominant character come slowly into focus through the film in the form of Florence Pugh, whose character, Amy, is not as clear about what she wants. Both just get better and better through the film. And Beth, played by Eliza Scanlen, has the least to do in the film, but still comes through as a fully formed character.

Butwhythopodcast: As Meg, Watson is stunning. She carries a calm emotion, embodying her role as the older sister, the template for the girls behind her. Each of the women carries a burden with them, while they carry it differently, they share it all the same. Gerwig nails the burden of family perfectly, while also showing us how a family carries together.

Lenoirauteur: Speaking of a lack of there there, poor Emma Watson. Her Meg has a really interesting story on face value but the story doesn’t get to really dig into her interior life. Which is a shame, because I felt Meg’s desire to know and want fancy things only to fall in love with a man who doesn’t have much is very interesting! But what good does interesting do me, if we barely spend time with her and everyone else gets a much more epic Laurie moment. It’s in the moments we spend with Meg where Gerwig’s changes strain against what you can do with a text and still maintain its effectiveness.

Timeout: But it’s Midsommar’s Florence Pugh who wows you the most as youngest Amy, gliding from bratty competitiveness to a hard-headed realism. (If Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen as the other two March girls, Meg and Beth, don’t make the same impression, it’s by intention: Gerwig has designed them more as mirrors.)

Everymoviehasalesson: The titular Chatty Cathys are the four March sisters of the 1860s at different coming-of-age stages. The two youngest, Beth (newcomer Eliza Scanlan of Babyteeth) and Amy (rising star Florence Pugh), look up to their older two sisters, Jo (three-time Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan) and Meg (the now nearly-30 Emma Watson) with shifting notes of reverence and jealousy.

Denofgeek: Watson’s Meg, meanwhile, feels like wallpaper despite leading many scenes, although this might simply be the result of Watson’s limited range in comparison to Ronan and Pugh.

Thespool: Ronan continues to prove a beautiful creative partner for Gerwig; her Jo’s an iconoclast and a spitfire, but that just makes her moments of vulnerability that much more deeply felt. Watson turns in fine, elegant work as Meg, and Scanlan commands the screen with quiet stoicism. But Pugh’s Amy March is a particular standout, her pouty brattiness belying her genuine insight into others, especially Laurie.

Forbes: Watson has perhaps the most challenging (and least audience-friendly) role, as the proverbial straight woman of the sisters who is put on the defensive when her dreams end up being the most conventional of the lot.

#little women #review #reviews

10 notes · View notes

blackberry-build · 2 years

Text

8 Ways To Add Value To Your Property

As specialists in the design, build and renovation of luxury homes, one question our clients regularly ask is…

“How can I improve my home’s value?”

Whether you’ve just moved into your new home and want to put your own stamp on it. Or if you’ve been there a while and need to freshen things up. When it comes to renovating your home, there are many things to consider.

Home renovations are not something to be taken lightly as there’s a great deal of work involved. That’s why, at Blackberry Build, we like to get to know you before making recommendations about any work being carried out.

After all, everyone’s needs are different. Each home deserves the highest level of design, precision and craftsmanship possible. That’s why our clients love the comprehensive service we provide.

Here are eight top tips for maximising your space, creating your dream home and increasing the value of your property.

Install The Latest Smart Home Technology

The advances in smart home technology are incredible. They’re all about saving you money, keeping you secure and making your life easier.

For this reason, home buyers are attracted to properties that are installed with the latest smart home technology. Whether it be smart lights that turn on, off and dim on demand. Or the latest in high tech home security cameras.

Embracing the smart home revolution will ensure your home is efficient, safe and in high demand.

Upgrade Your Kitchen or Bathroom

Probably the two most important rooms in your home! Buyers love the attraction of a recently fitted bathroom or kitchen.

Bathrooms and kitchens with fresh tiles and appliances installed to the highest standard help your home stand out. When done right they can be the centrepiece of your home and can add incredible value to your property.

Update Your Interior Design

Have you ever walked around a home and thought “wow” in your head in every room you’ve been in? You can give your visitors that same feeling by updating the interior design throughout your home.

A fresh, stylish interior design appeals to everyone. And it helps reflect the style and taste of the homeowner. This all increases your home’s demand and value.

Improve Your Windows & Glazing

The windows in your home don’t just keep you warm and dry. They also say a lot about your home. If they’re starting to get old and a little tired, it can drag your home’s curb appeal down.

By installing new windows and glazing you can help transform the exterior appeal of your home, while improving the interior’s comfort. New glazing also helps to drastically reduce energy bills and makes your home far more energy efficient.

Revamp Your Landscaping & Gardens

The perfect complement to a gorgeous home is to have an eye-catching and practical outdoor space.

Your gardens, driveways and patios can give your home an incredible curb appeal. This makes a fantastic first impression on visitors and makes a strong statement about your entire home’s appearance.

Create Open Plan Living

These days people love to congregate and relax in luxury and comfort. Creating open living spaces within your home helps to bring people together. It also brightens up your home with heaps of natural daylight.

Open plan spaces are brilliant for entertaining and partying and help to give your home a true sense of luxury and style.

Converting Your Loft and Garage

Converting your garage helps to create extra living space within your home. Whether you need an extra play area, a home office, a home gym or simply an extra room to unwind in, a garage conversion is a great choice.

When it comes to creating a unique, spacious upstairs space, converting your loft is a brilliant option. Lofts often contain a lot of wasted space. So by converting them into a luxury room, you’re helping to maximise your use of space and hugely improving your home’s value.

Increase Your Living Space

Adding a well-designed extension is a great way to add appeal to your home. A single storey extension can help make your home more practical. Whether that be extending the size of your kitchen or living room or creating a new room altogether.

A two-storey extension can obviously create even more room. With an extra bedroom or an extended bedroom adding more appeal and practicality to your home. When done right, extending your living space is perfect for creating more square footage, adding more light and increasing the value of your home.

At Blackberry Build, our attention to detail and vast experience in luxury home construction and renovation provides you with unparalleled results.

By listening to your needs, hopes and dreams for your property we can help create your dream home. A home that lets you live in luxury and increases in value with every project we complete for you.

To discuss it further, contact us today. We’re ready to help make your dreams a reality.

0 notes

crystalelemental · 7 years

Text

I think it's been long enough to make some final judgment calls on HSiFS.

I really like it. I kinda came into this one getting vibes of MoF just in terms of concept and all, and it does feel fairly similar between the simplistic resource collection method, and the season release being reminiscent of the "bomb to survive but lose power" mechanic. I actually love how the game plays, even though the release mechanic has spoiled me terribly.

Music has been really good this game. I like a lot of the boss themes, most notably Eternity, Okina (final, not extra), and especially Narumi's themes. They're really good. I think Narumi's is a strong contender for one of my favorites in the series. Every time I get to her boss fight the theme is stuck in my head the rest of the day.

As for cast...let's start protagonists. Reimu is Reimu. I have little to really update on her so far. Cirno...okay, fine, she's an endearing protagonist. She's so simple and goofy, and I did wind up loving most of her dialogue exchanges. I'm still grumpy there's no Sanae, or any other character with a blatant seasonal affiliation as a playable option, but Cirno did good work. Aya I have gotten the least amount of progress with. Her shot type, I think, is straight-up the worst one. Weaker than Marisa, barely much spread, and her bomb covers less distance than Reimu or Cirno; just not a great option overall. Still really like her, though. Her investigation into things is fun, and her interactions with Nemuno are particularly great.

That said, Marisa is the standout victor of protagonists this time. I'm talking "jumped probably 20 places in my own popularity rankings" winner. Within the core story, she's solving the incident, comes across Okina who wants to recruit her as a Mai/Satono replacement, and Marisa rejects the offer and the fight begins. However, at the end of the fight, Marisa's the one who ran off and effectively lost. But she comes back with understanding of how Okina's power works (after knowing about it for, what, 10 minutes?), and had enough comprehension of it to duplicate the power but with an added variation that represents the border of seasons associated with the world losing vitality, and challenges Okina again solely because Okina's power is magic-based and she doesn't want to lose to anyone in magic. If there's any establishing moment for Marisa's character in this game, that's it right there, and it's wonderful. It's such a good showing of her abilities and how she is as a person. She acknowledges her first match against Okina as a loss, but aims to override that loss with her new countermeasures. It kinda reminds me of that one occurrence in the manga, where she declares proudly that she's the #2 in Gensokyo. There's a nice mix of humility and pride in the whole exchange, where Marisa is able to acknowledge the first round as her loss, but is still confident in her abilities and aims to win now. It's a really great scenario.

And now, the important part: the new cast. How do I rank everyone? Well, let's go reverse order and find out.

Nemuno - look, I have nothing against Nemuno. She's just not my type of character. On the positive end, I, too, just wish to be left alone, and want everyone else to just get the hell off my lawn. She's an interesting character in that regard, being completely isolated socially and wanting it that way. That's a great basis. She's also the type of character with a gruff exterior but a sweet interior, being willing to let people leave with a warning rather than killing them in most cases, and apparently will adopt lost kids and raise them. As far as positives go, she's pretty fun. I just don't have much attachment to her. She's the kind of person that I'd love as a neighbor, but that's because we'd never have to interact. There's nothing particularly interesting going on with her for me, so while I have no strong downsides, I don't have strong positive feelings either.

Okina - Surprise! Yes, Okina is not a particularly high-ranked character for me yet. Let's start positive. Her power, while complicated and hard to understand, does have relation to the seasons. It seems the powers she opens up are related to seasonal powers, and that this draws out the magical potency of people for her to absorb and take control of. Somehow. The mechanics of it all are unclear, but seasonal control is cool, so that's nice. She's also one of the sages that helped build Gensokyo, putting her in a pretty exclusive category alongside Yukari and probably Kasen. She's also very direct in her approach to things despite staying mostly hidden from the world, serving as a pretty nice contrast to Yukari, who tends to be well-known but hard to understand. She has excellent lore significance, is a fascinating character...but I just can't really like her. While Nemuno is a character I like who just misses the mark, Okina is one that hits the mark but is kinda hard for me to like. A lot of it has to do with Marisa's route. She chooses her subordinates on her own whims, ignores their consent or rejection of the role, and is willing to toss away said subordinates whenever she's done with them. I know there's implication that she's aiming to release Satono and Mai back to being just ordinary humans to live out their lives, but I don't get the sense that she's the type of character who would give a shit. If she still had use for them, I doubt she'd consider replacing them. Her description says that, as a god, she bestows blessings on those who show faith, but we really only have Satono and Mai to go off of right now. Given their current situation, it seems like the "blessings" are granting power to further serve her, without really giving the subordinate a whole lot of choice. None of her actions sit particularly well with me. She does what she wants, and doesn't seem to have a ton of regard for others' agency. There's a very real possibility that, when she inevitably shows up again, aspects of her character will be explored that will make me like her more. But right now, she's a character I find fascinating, but don't particularly like.

Aunn - Double suprise! Yes, the good pupper is bottom half. She's precious and adorable, and I do like her a lot. She's generally just a swell, positive character. But I also don't feel as much attachment as everyone else does? It's weird. Like, she's great. Anyone telling me that she was their favorite is not someone I would argue with, because they're making a good choice. I am just not as invested in her. Maybe it’s her design not being that interesting. Maybe it’s that I don’t really like dogs that much. Maybe it's because her non-spells are the biggest source of irritation for me because I wind up using bombs out of a panicked sense of needing to avoid deaths until stage 4, only to reach stage 4 without enough resources to avoid dying for long. Who knows.

Mai then Satono - I feel like this list is going to be just full of surprises, and this might be the most surprising of all for people. Yes, Mai and Satono are pretty high up there for me right now. For anyone wondering why Satono is ranked a bit above Mai, it's entirely based on design. I like her color scheme better. As for why the two are higher ranked than most, it...really comes down to the fact that they actually exuded a personality. They're very clearly just an extension of Okina, and Okina is likely how they even have power in the first place, so they're not independent at all. But thankfully, they still function as characters. They don't feel like they're just extensions of another character, you know? Mai is, as Satono expresses, a scatterbrain, who is quick to act and seems to enjoy herself, but not particularly thorough or careful in her actions. Satono, by comparison, is a bit more composed and cautious. We don't even see her until we're already in the hidden world, despite both of them being active in the incident. She also seems to be the one getting direct information from Okina, so whether that implies she's the more trustworthy of the two or not, I don't know, but that's how I choose to interpret it. Their personalities shine through, and they're clearly extensions of Okina overall, but it makes me wonder about them as people. I think that, of the cast, they're actually the characters I want to see more of the most. I'm curious how they came to work for Okina; whether they're her first subordinates, whether it was voluntary or coerced, what their whole take on this is. Their character descriptions mention that, even if they knew Okina was seeking replacements, they'd probably still go through with the search. Is that because they can't go against Okina, want to make their god pleased even if it means stepping down from their role, or would they be happy to leave the service? There's a lot of speculation, and just enough to catch my interest, so they get particularly high marks. Also, just as the added confound: I really like their boss fight. There are some things that are bullshit, but I think their fights are fun.

Narumi - God I love Narumi. First off, anyone classified as a magician is automatically great in my book. Second, she's a living statue that is, quite literally, just the statue. She's described as more like a golem, and that's awesome. Third, she's just precious. Both in her simple design and her actions, she is precious. She gets so worked up from Mai's influence that she's ready to test her full power, but at the same time she's very passive as a person. I think my favorite interaction with her is in Marisa's 1CC ending. Marisa expresses that the culprit escaped, and Narumi's response is just "Wow, you let them get away? Laaaame." Not to mention her reaction to finding the door on her back is "Huh. Talk about creepy." Narumi is super chill, super cute, and just great all-around. That being said...

Eternity Larva - Behold, the first time in this series that the stage 1 boss wound up being my favorite, and what a favorite she is. I'll be frank: I generally love the fairies. They're a fun group of characters, and their associations with different aspects of nature is the exact kind of thing I tend to gravitate toward. I'm also generally a big fan of their designs. Even ones that I don't rank particularly high I think have fantastic designs, and Eternity is no exception. I love the butterfly theme she's got going on. Eternity is also a big helper. She gets worked up with the incident, sure, but her reaction to it for Reimu is, at first, an offer to help. She's just a friendly fairy, who can still be a bit of a troublemaker. Her reaction to Cirno is to fight her for who gets dominion over summer. Her banter is fantastic there, and as stage 1 bosses go, she's just very charming, if not very involved. But then we get Cirno's extra stage, where it turns out that Eternity's door is associated with doyou, that border between seasons, and that she's implied to be (unknowingly) a god that's specifically opposed to Okina. Her designation is apparently also translated to a god of perpetual darkness, likely because of that association with doyou. I think that qualifies as, bar none, the most history and involvement a stage 1 boss has ever received. Hell, that's more than some late-game bosses get. She's just the right combination of things I wanted: great design, fun character, and surprising lore development. I love this butterfly fairy, and I hope very strongly to see her pop up in Visionary Fairies in Shrine.

#touhou #hidden star in four seasons #nemuno sakata #okina matara #aunn komano #mai teireida #satono nishida #narumi yatadera #eternity larva

9 notes · View notes

caitlinotoole · 5 years

Text

Week 01 | Thursday, 9am | 28/02/19

Today’s class started off with a discussion of an item/thing that has interesting branding. My choice was the dumpling bar, Xuxu, opposite Britomart train station. I visited Xuxu’s sister restaurant, carom in Ponsonby and really enjoyed the experience, and eventually stumbled across Xuxu through that website. I ended up loving the Xuxu brand more as the graphic and design spoke more to me and seemed to target a younger audience, that maybe follows trends more so, is more “hip”.

(Images from https://www.instagram.com/seachange.studio/)

As you can see the brand takes elements of Chinese culture, where dumpling come from, through traditional imagery and has reworked this in a fresh, contemporary way. It is very cohesive across all elements in therm of menu, logo, business card, coaster etc.

However, as I did not think about, the actual interior and vibe of the restaurant is completely disassociated from this graphic identity, which was brought up following my presentation. The interior of the dumpling bar is dark, with a lot of oak wood, black, and the only signage is a neon light spelling ‘Xuxu’. This disconnection I have found out, can be common among brands. If you saw the graphic of this identity and were asked to describe what you think the actual place looks like you would probably believe that the bar was quirky, fun, light coloured, innovative, interesting music, mid to high price range, interesting cocktails, and a unique fusion ambiance. What you really get though is a lack of identity in the bar, intimidation, up-market feeling, and an even different target audience to what their graphic brings.

(Image from https://www.myguideauckland.com/nightlife/xuxu)

In understanding how this disconnect is really quite critical, I can recall of my own experience walking past the bar and always wondering what as inside because it is surrounded by bamboo and palms, always looks dark and moody but always looks very busy. However, there is absolutely no signage out the front and no identity to it. When I saw that this was their identity my first reaction was “Wow, I never knew that’s what it was!”. When I had simply walked past I had never wanted or bene particularly inclined to ever visit/dine there, but once I saw the more unique, inviting, fused brand identity I felt it to be a much more welcoming an open place.

This really taught me the importance of cohesion across what you are doing, and further reminded me that the feeling of a physical space can actually be really off putting and detrimental to the potential audience. It is quite clear that there needs to be a firm decision in the tone of voice of a brand for it be strong.

We also got into reflection on our daily routine, what we used, and of what importance was it to for us (was it to portray lifestyle, status, emotional, essential etc.). This highlighted the importance of understanding our an audiences routine, what they do, what they use, when trying to become relevant and a part of their life, because becoming apart of their routine is extremely valuable and is how you will retain the customer.

This set us up for the beginning of what we need to do for our coming project, placing a large important on talking to the people what we do effects, may impact, may surprise, may anger etc.

Overall I felt that this lesson was great to get some refreshers and insights on important things that I should be looking for to creative an effective brand. For this project, it will likely be important for me, and not only that but beyond into my life aswell. It also further reminded me how crucial design is in business and so many other areas because designers are the people who really kno whow to pull in the customer and achieve the outcomes that people want. I also was reminded how important it is to research widely and absorb as much information as I can about a topic/subject. This is a big goal for me in this project, to ensure that I drive myself to research a lot because ultimately at the end this is what will allow me to stand out from the crowd and create smart, innovative solutions, brands etc.

0 notes

zmemoriesofmylifeyshaa · 5 years

Text

Brussels!

I would write something about my journey in Brussels. I arrived there Tuesday on the 12th of February 2019, I checked in my hotel, Hilton Grand Place and I took my time, since I wasn’t going to wait for Julia to come.. her flight was canceled due to a strike... So this little trip turned out to be my second solo travel! Exciting, but also a bit annoying since in the evening you can’t really do that much. I visited a bit Brussels by night the same evening, not so many people around that time, but I was excited already to visit it by daytime. Unfortunately, I encountered a weird guy on my way back to the hotel... the same blah blah stuff, weirdos say to a girl alone. At the end he wanted a kiss for his birthday, like if I care it was his birthday lol. Of course, I didn’t give such a freak a kiss and he surely went away. I went back to the hotel and went to sleep after a call with my babe.

13 February: I woke up around 9:00 in order to get the nice Hilton breakfast, I was so looking forward to having a breakfast there. It was good food! Then I chilled a bit in the room, listen to music and spend a nice time alone. Afterwards I went around the city to visit it. Pretty Brussels, especially the main square! I loved the fact that the sun was shining! I walked to see the Manneken Pis, but then I realized that I went to visit the “Het Zinneke” haha which was the pissing dog. I changed my route and went to see what I really wanted to see and le petite Julien was really small haha! Then I went back to the Galerie du Roi and drank a coffee at “Askum” a cool place inside the galeries. I have to say that the coffee was expensive, I paid 3.50 or 4.50 euro for a cappucino... I stayed in the cafe a bit and organized my calendar and modify a bit of the pictures I took. Later that day, I walked a lot from the Galeries to St. Michel Church, to Mont des Art and then to the hotel around 5.30 pm. I wanted to try the Executive Lounge and once they opened it around 6 pm, I went there and ate my dinner, pommes frites. They were good and free! Later that day, I didn’t do anything anymore... because I didn’t know what to do... the beer tasting I wanted to do it the next day, on my last night.

14 February: Good morning! Got up around 9.30 am and went to another good breakfast! Then I chilled again in the room, got ready with some good music and went out to see the Atomium. The weather was great again! I don’t have so much to say, but I think that if you are in Brussels, you must see the Atomium, it’s quite cool to see big balls in the sky! (if the sky is so blue, like when I was there!). Afterwards I went to Ixelles, a beautiful district of the city, plenty of beautiful cafes! I went in one where they sell also donuts, yummy it was good. Anyway Happy Valentine’s Day to my man back home! I loved the interior design of that place... When I was in the cafe, I registered to do the Beer tasting tour! Sometimes you just need to go out of your comfort zone, so I pressed the button “buy”! Let’s do it, I said! I went back to the hotel around 4 or 5 pm, because the tour started around 6 pm.

Beer tasting tour: so where to start.. the meeting point was at Scott’s Bar, 5 minutes on foot from my place. Even though I didn’t want to come early, I still came pretty early. I hate coming early, it makes me anxious haha. Anyway I waited a bit outside and then I went inside, I didn’t know where to go haha so I waited a couple of minutes until I asked to the bartender, where was this tour. He pointed out where the team members were and I went to them and said I was doing the tour. They asked for my ticket and told me to wait. Other participants came and then we went upstairs. They were a group of 5 guys from Argentina, a couple from Romania and Italy but both living in Manchester, a guy from Toronto, a group of three girls from Basel, Switzerland and then two couples from Australia and a woman from England but originally from Finland. It wasn’t that awkward at the beginning, because we talked to each other, which was cool! The guide was funny and relaxed, but a bit disorganized in my opinion. Anyway he started to talk about the history of the Belgian beers and then we finally could pour our drinks and drink it! I chose a beer called Chimay, it had a strong taste, but still drinkable haha damnnnnn it was 9% and I just ate a chocolate bar prior this beer tour. To be honest with you I was already a bit drunk after once beer. But the guys told me the same, so I didn’t feel that weak haha I had fun talking to the Canadian guy next to me! He told me something about his life and that he lived 18 years in Australia. Following that, the tour guide said we were going to another bar, so we put our jackets and went out. We crossed the Grand Place and I saw it in another perception, from a drunk view lol. Quentin showed us where we could buy nice beers and then we went to the bar and drunk other 3 beers, which we’re not that good in my opinion. Especially the last one was really bad. In this second bar, I sat next to the Romanian-Italian couple and they were so cute together.. we talked about our travels. I was a bit sad that the guy from Canada couldn’t sit next to me.. we had a good conversation before. I also talked a bit to the Australian guy and he was also kind, his friend was so drunk already haha. The tour beer ended. The Austrialians were the first to go, then the nice couple and the Finnish woman living in England. The group of guys a girls sat in the table next to mine and were still talking.. my table was mostly empty, the one who remained were me and the Canadian guy. We agreed to go and eat something together. We said buy to the rest of the group and thanked again Quentin. (Lol his look at me, when he understood that we were both going to eat together lol like goooo guy and girl). We walked until this famous restaurant named Chez Leon, we ate mussles with french fries, apparently a typical Belgian food. So good the mussels! Wow what a great connection we had... I mean he is older than me for sure, I understood that because he already a cardiologist and went for 18 years to Australian, I’m pretty sure you don’t move before finishing your studies to another country. Anyways he asked me so many personal question that I was happy to be questioned haha he asked my about my future, my hobbies, etc. It is nice talking to someone that you can’t disappoint or someone who can’t judge you, because he doesn’t know anything about me. After our dinner, we went to the Delirium TapHouse, so cool that place! We talked to some locals and asked them which beer they like. This guy suggested us to Barbar and it tasted amazing! We ordered two beers and sat down. I don’t exactly remember anymore about what we talked, but it was just nice talking to each other. One thing just shocked me.. he told me this story about his two friends who gave a ride to a couple who was hitchhiking in Canada, they shared contacts and one month later one of the friend received an email, where it says that the couple wanted to kill them, but they didn’t, because they treated them good and that they should never pick up people from the road like them! OMFG, how lucky they were. We talked about travels, about life, about sports (he won a deal, because I thought Kobe Bryan was smaller than 1.80m), about tequila and he was saying that I was hilarious, because I was already drunk. We changed contacts and then around 1 am, we decided to go and take a tequila shot in my hotel. On the way there we took some pics at the Gran Place and they are all so cute any funny haha. Once in the hotel, we realised it was already closed :I Oh God, I didn’t want to cheat on Flo, but I also did feel to just following my feelings. As single, in the moment I would have said, let’s go and let’s spend time in my room. But I’m an honest and not cheater girl, so I hugged him and told him good night, beside the fact that I was drunk, I was also really tired. I took a quick shower and then fall asleep right away.

Let’s talk about this. I do think you can fall in love many times in your life, but you need to choose what is good for you and for the people that are in your life. You can’t be selfish, you just can’t. You made your choice, many days ago and you need to respect them, it’s doesn’t matter the circumstances. You want to be respected? Then respect first those who love you. I will fall in love with another people, but until my heart belongs to my baby. It’s just for my baby and me. Will I regret that I am not having that fun? I don’t know about that, but at least I am following the values I grew up with. I spent a nice moment with Matthew Henry, but that was it. Thank you for the nice evening we spent together and thank you for being you, kind, gentleman and not pushy.

Brussels, thank you for the memories.

0 notes

entergamingxp · 4 years

Text

World of Warcraft and Apex Legends • Eurogamer.net

Hello and welcome to the second of our Clash of Fans write-ups. This week we’ll be getting together in pairs (virtually) and forcing each other to play a beloved game. Then we’ll chat about what we made of it all. Next up is World of Warcraft and Apex Legends!

World of Warcraft

Emma: The idea with Clash of Fans is for everyone to play a game they haven’t tried before, but I must admit I have somewhat bent the rules on this one. I was actually introduced to World of Warcraft in a university games history seminar, of all things, as an example of an MMO with a declining player population – something which I’m sure horrified Oli when I told him.

Anyway, it’s been good to revisit the game on my own terms, and with more time. I used to be a big Star Wars: The Old Republic player a few years ago, so I’ve enjoyed having a look at where all those MMO mechanics came from.

I suppose we’d better start with character creation so you can judge my choices: I’m really sorry Oli, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick Horde. They seem like they’re trying very hard to be edgy. I also wanted to try out the Worgen race, who seem like they’re troubled but come out fighting for the “good” side, and therefore achieve a more balanced level of moodiness. I’m sure there’ll be something in the lore to disprove that point.

Even though the character creation is pretty limited compared to current-day titles, I do love how you end up getting so invested in your player-character, and almost put a part of yourself into them. I got inspired by the Worgen race to imagine my character as a sword-wielding, brooding she-wolf warrior – which is unusual for me, as I usually go for sneaky types. Now all I need is a proper cloak.

Fun fact: when I was about 14 and the Cataclysm expansion released, I used to draw fan art of those moody Worgen… even though I wasn’t allowed anywhere near World of Warcraft at the time. Maybe it was meant to be.

And here’s what inspired that fan art.

Oli: So, yes, I do feel very old right now, thanks. Even “games history” being a thing makes me feel old. But while WOW’s player population may have been declining then, and certainly still is, the game is still massive and has seen off every challenger in the interim, including The Old Republic. In your face, student Emma and her stupid stuffy games history professor.

Sorry. Nothing, maybe not even Nintendo, makes me come over more fanboy than this game. Is that a self-justification mechanism to defend the literal years of playtime I have sunk into this MMO? Probably, but that’s not just it. It’s telling, I think, that you felt so invested in your character and the Worgen race so early on – it must be something about the game’s art and simple but effective storytelling style that really hooks you in and encourages role-playing. In my head, my first character, a troll warrior, was a sort of clumsy eccentric who didn’t really want to be a warrior (because I didn’t – I was asked to roll one by my friends). You’re probably right about the Horde being the embarrassingly emo choice, but it is the choice I made 15 years ago and I live by it now. These people – orcs? zombies? cow-folk? – are my people. They’re my brothers and sisters. The sense of belonging is just so strong. Humans disgust me. Don’t even get me started on gnomes.

Every time Wes and I have a fun, nostalgic chat about WOW, there comes a point where I remember he played Alliance and I just feel very disappointed in him. It’s sad.

Anyway, how did you get on once you started playing? I remember the Worgen starting area being pretty action-packed and fun – a far cry from the pre-Cataclysm dustbowls where you had to kill boar for a million hours to get to level 10. (I should have made you play WOW Classic, shouldn’t I…)

Emma: I’m with you on the humans – the other choices are so much more imaginative, why on Earth would you pick something so bland?

My feelings on Gilneas are decidedly more mixed. The rainy setting and Victorian London vibes are fantastic, even if the whole lockdown situation is a little close to home right now. I love how deliciously chunky the art style is, the scale means you feel quite small next to everything, and I spent some time just wandering through houses to admire the interior design. There’s also something rather magical about how the areas transform once you’ve handed in a quest. That square you were once strolling through? Poof! It’s now a battlefield, and everything’s on fire.

On the flip side: good lord that’s a lot of fetch quests. I know this is like complaining a beach has too much sand, as MMOs are built on grind, but it’s made me realise SWTOR did a better job of disguising the fetch quests behind story beats – or at least providing big narrative pay-offs at the end. There weren’t really any characters I cared about in the starting area for WOW, so when the area flooded and it was supposed to be this big narrative moment, my reaction was “meh”. Although I did burst out laughing at the wild camera movement to convey the drama of the invading armada, it was just so charmingly clunky.

Images that precede unfortunate events.

Oli: Yeah, I can imagine that stuff is quite a lot more gauche than I remember it. At the time it was a big leap forward for storytelling in the game. A strange part of this game being such a big part of my life – and just so big – is that I really struggle to see it in the context of other games. I just see it in the context of itself. Recent expansions will make Gilneas look as old-fashioned as Gilneas made the game at launch look, but that doesn’t mean they actually feel modern.

And if you’re looking for characters to care about, you might be looking in the wrong place. The game has some lovely quest lines and the grand sweep of the story is quite exciting in places, but it doesn’t have a lot of room for characters.

As for fetch quests… I’ve played so much WOW I find the repetition soothing. I love the grind, I don’t need it to be disguised. It annoys me when I’m just walking backwards and forwards, but give me 10 monsters to kill in a metronomic fashion on the way and I’m happy. I am Pavlov’s gamer.

One thing I will say is that the starter area isn’t all that representative of what’s beyond it. Not that there’s less grind – there’s more, so much more. But the slightly awkward way the storytelling and quest mechanics sit next to each other gets smoothed away, and the delivery feels much more natural. The game becomes much more about exploring its vast maps, too, which is one of the things it’s best at.

Emma: I think the fetch quests would also be much more bearable if I was playing with someone else – soloing WOW isn’t exactly a natural way to play it, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for that! It’s a shame I couldn’t get to the stage where I could try a raid party, as I always wanted to have my own Leeroy Jenkins moment.

We haven’t talked about the actual combat mechanics yet, although I think I only really tried the most basic moves of all, which were varieties of bonking people on the head with a mace. It does get to the point where you figure out an order for your moves, and it feels great when that clicks: charge in, lay down a few smacks, and then bring out the more powerful moves and a finisher. I can understand how this makes the grind feel far more satisfying, particularly as one of my moves worked from jumping quickly from one battle to the next, and I had to figure out that time window. It turns out MMOs are part rhythm game: this is my take for the day.

Oli: That is a good and correct take. And yes, although it’s very basic at the start of the game, you’ve started to get a sense of what makes the game so hypnotic, and so good. Above all WOW has brilliant RPG classes, with expertly designed skills that are really satisfying to use. So once you get into the groove with your rotation, and start to learn how to optimise it – and learn to use situational skills as well when things get a bit more complex – it’s super rewarding.

WOW’s dirty secret is that most people, most of the time, are playing it solo. The dungeons and raids are definitely the game at its best; large-scale raiding is seen as the pinnacle of the game, but I think it’s the five-player dungeons that are better dynamically. If you can hang on to level 15, you’ll get to try one. I think they’re some of the best co-op gaming ever, even if players tend to rush through them a bit these days. But yes, questing is mostly done solo and is tuned as such.

That said, the best times I’ve ever had in the game have been questing with one friend. There’s just so much to discover, such a varied and exciting world, and it’s great doing it in company. If I could persuade you to keep playing, I’d say this: try a dungeon, and get to a point where you can really start to explore the landmasses. The environment art is incredible in its simple, colourful way, there’s no loading, and the world just goes on for ever.

I’d love to know how dated it feels to you. I think Blizzard has done a great job keeping a 15-year-old game feeling slick and playable, but that’s got to have its limitations.

Bleiddast means she-wolf in Welsh, according to the Welsh-English Online Dictionary. (‘Character names are serious business’ – Emma.)

Emma: Alas, I must have stopped just before reaching the first dungeon – I think the quest which involved killing a bunch of spiders finally finished me off. I’d always thought of myself as being a bit of a weird loner when playing MMOs by myself, so it’s reassuring to hear most people aren’t playing as part of huge organised clans.

As for WOW feeling dated, it’s probably the cutscenes where the game suffers most, as the older graphics and animation are more noticeable there. At one point you get bitten mid-quest and your character just flies across the room, which was both confusing and hilarious. The voice acting also gave me a chuckle, as it sounds so theatrical: particularly when the human version of a Worgen politely tells you you’re out of range, and the werewolf version sounds like a chain smoker. I also heard that particular line way too much.

Despite all this, the art style is strong enough to stand the test of time, and the core gameplay loop still feels solid – so that’s the most important thing for me. One of my university friends has offered to take me under her wing and teach me the ways of WOW, so I may be returning to it sooner than I thought. Time to try out one of those dungeons.

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Apex Legends

Oli: I’m scared. What’s happening? It says ‘Season 5’ everywhere. It boots up with a trailer of a lady fighting some robots while having apparently Significant Flashbacks, but the game itself shows no evidence of having any kind of story. The UI is a confusing mess and keeps shouting at me about Twitch Prime. My character’s lobby idle animation is all jerky. My PS4 Pro sounds like it’s going to die in the next five minutes.

I don’t do battle royale – I played Fortnite, like, once. In fact, I don’t really do multiplayer shooters in any form. I have bad aim and I get performance anxiety. I don’t find them relaxing or fun, I find them stressful. Apex Legends isn’t really helping me get over this.

I get why the game has been set up like this – it’s all about reducing the number of button presses between the player and a match. But it makes for a bewildering first impression. The tutorial covers the controls but otherwise isn’t very helpful, and I have to root around to get basic information such as what each character’s abilities are. It doesn’t feel welcoming at all. Also, while the characters look cool, I find the game’s art style in general very hard to read. I’m squinting at pickups to figure out what they are, and one part of the map looks much like all the others to me.

I’m sure it’ll click soon, but as someone who usually plays very different kinds of games, it’s remarkable to me how unwelcoming this is to a first-time player.

Following your advice, Emma, I picked Gibraltar, the tanky one, for my first match. I was matchmade with a Bloodhound but for some reason the third member of our trio never joined. I just followed Bloodhound around like a total liability, getting shot, staring blankly at pickups for ages and not knowing what my abilities were for. I felt bad for my partner. We managed 6th, though!

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Emma: I can’t imagine how confusing it must be to drop into Apex Legends’ lore right now. Because it’s a battle royale and nothing is permanent, Respawn mainly develops the story through trailers and tidbits on the website, all of which means it’s harder for new players to catch up. I’d recommend a trip to a wiki if you want to read up on the latest Loba/Revenant drama (it’s pretty good), but you can absolutely survive without. Although you should absolutely watch the video where Forge gets… introduced.

Apex has definitely caught a lot of flak for not being particularly beginner-friendly, in part because it’s just so fast and the encounters are super intense – although I believe Respawn introduced skill-based matchmaking to try to help new players. I’m hoping the in-match UI will click soon, too, as I think it takes a few games for your brain to figure out, and then things suddenly seem rather simple. Although it may take you far longer to figure out how to use the abilities tactically. I think I’m still figuring it out for some characters.

Saying that, please do keep trying new legends, as there’s a playstyle for everyone. My personal favourite is Pathfinder, as flinging yourself through the air and bursting into battles via zip-line is just so much fun. I love that chaotic energy.

Although you’ve been having issues with the UI, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the ping system: it’s adaptive and means you can communicate without the need for voice chat, which is such a life saver (particularly for women – no more toxic conversations, hurray). How have you found it?

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

Oli: Ping is absolutely brilliant. It’s a masterstroke. I’m not using it with confidence myself yet, but having teammates use it to point out pickups and enemies, or just set waypoints, is awesome. I don’t love voice chat at the best of times, but I often can’t use it at home, so I love that Respawn has found a way to make that level of teamplay available without voice. That’s a big plus for accessibility.

I’m feeling much better after my second match, mostly because WE WON. This is now the best game ever.

I still wasn’t any good, especially at the shooting – we were totally carried, by a Bloodhound again – but I used my abilities at sensible times, got a couple of kills and a revive, and it felt good, man. Partly we were just lucky and didn’t really encounter anyone for a long midsection of the match. I haven’t got used to the pacing of battle royales, yet – often, you’re not really doing much, and yet this is helping you win as the other teams wipe each other out. It feels weird.

The game handles beautifully – no surprise from Respawn. I love the mantling and the slides and the guns feel great to fire. And yes, encounters are fast, but you’ve got the bleeding out mechanic to give you a bit of a chance to rally as a team, which is a nice touch.

I have mixed feelings about it being teams only. To begin with this stressed me out, as I prefer to learn a game without the pressure of strangers depending on me. But actually, it makes it much easier and more accessible if you can spread the load a bit, doesn’t it? And it adds a nice sense of camaraderie to what would be a pretty alienating experience otherwise.

Emma: The sliding is so good! I love it so much, in fact, that I’ve inadvertently started sliding around in other shooters – my squad mates noticed me doing this around corners in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare a couple of times. Apex seems to be one of the few battle royales where there’s no fall damage, which may seem like a small thing, but it means you don’t have pointless (and annoying) deaths from accidentally falling off things. It’s much more exciting to be shot by someone, right?

Funnily enough, Respawn actually tried a solo mode for Apex as a limited-time event a while back, and for me (and Respawn) it really didn’t work. Without teammates you lose the communication of the ping system, which as you mention, somehow wordlessly forms bonds between you and your squad before the fighting has even begun. You also end up dying quickly in situations where you can’t even react, which is particularly annoying in a battle royale where you have to re-queue rather than just respawn. No second chances.

Having a team means you have the added drama of revives, and also respawns – a system which Apex was first to introduce among the big battle royale games, with Fortnite and Warzone later doing their own versions. I don’t know if this has happened to you yet, but on occasion you can find yourself collecting the respawn banners of your two dead squadmates and sprinting to the nearest respawn beacon. It becomes a tense game of parkour and stealth at that point, and adds another layer to the storytelling in each match. It just makes it so much more memorable.

And congratulations on your win – now you’ll always be chasing the next one. Particularly as Apex puts your name in flashing lights around the arena.

Do you come here often? Yes, unfortunately.

Oli: I noticed about fall damage and breathed a sigh of relief, yeah! I haven’t clicked with the map for this game – it doesn’t feel like a place I’m excited to be – but they have made getting around it feel liberating and fun with the ziplines and stuff, and I appreciate that.

I have been respawned but I haven’t done it for anyone else yet. I don’t think I could take the responsibility.

After feeling like I had got somewhere with Gibraltar, I tried Wraith. Having an alarm when you’re targeted is a really clever idea for a passive skill – I am digging the skill design in this game. If anything is going to get me to come back, it will be experimenting with all the different legends. I didn’t get on so well with Wraith though, and had a couple of strange matches where nothing happened for ages and then our squad got wiped out in a flash. It feels really frustrating. It also feels like it’s going to take me an age to get any good at combat, because it actually forms only a tiny proportion of the time you spend playing a match.

This probably appeals to me the most of the battle royale games – it’s got that slick Respawn feel and the kind of refined design I like, with strong characters with interesting abilities. I also feel like I understand the appeal of battle royale much better after my win! But I don’t know if I could dedicate serious time to these games. They’re too much of an emotional rollercoaster for me. Too much stress. Now I need to go and soothe my cares away with a spot of repetitive grind in World of Warcraft…

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/world-of-warcraft-and-apex-legends-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=world-of-warcraft-and-apex-legends-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

0 notes

armorroofing · 7 years

Text

Wow! Armor Roofing - Lee's Summit MO New Roof Installations

The article Wow! Armor Roofing - Lee's Summit MO New Roof Installations originally appeared on Armor Roofing Kansas City.

A lot of people undervalue how imperative it should be to have regular roofing inspections. For many of us, a property or home is certainly their most meaningful long-term investment. A home provides you the setting necessary in order to build a life with your family. You can, as a result, comprehend why it will have to be well managed for everybody to end up being satisfied. Do not mess up this setting by making it possible for a worn roof top to encourage water leak damage to your goods. Healthy care of your roofing is normally of the utmost importance to you and your relatives, therefore.

You cannot exaggerate the critical status of an in tact roof in keeping a home interior guarded against a stormy climate. Consequently, when you start seeing telling signs of impending roof harm such as tiles on the turf or surprising dents on your HVAC, you will be needing to benefit from an inspection of your roofing right away to revive any probable damage.

Armor Roofing has been roofing in the Lee's Summit local community for over 20 years and we place customer happiness first. This is one of the good reasons we have a lot of enthusiastic ratings and recommendations publicized on the top websites rating local businesses and carry an enviable grade with the local BBB. Are you worried as to whether or not your insurance adjuster will certainly remunerate your claim? We have really helped plenty of clients in working through the procedure to access the claim payout they should have. We furnish a bare minimum a five-year guaranty on materials and serviceon nearly every roofing replacement job we execute, and your feeling of satisfaction is certain.

The worst thing you want to have is for a mild roof shingle tears to harm your abode and belongings within. Contact Armor Roofing at this time to ensure that your rooftop is in good shape prior to a new weather event hitting the Lee's Summit local area.

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

Speaking to roof maintenance, there is few most important family home repair issues men or women might discount, and linked to those, they're types of procedures that have to be carried out to be certain a roof covering will endure the rain when any sort of storm hits. A full roof replacement can wind up very costly, yet not making sure it is addressed at the earliest opportunity is not ever advised. The explanation is plain. After water proceeds leaking into the premises because you delayed the job, repairing water leak damage would likely be even more highly-priced than the starting roofing price you were steering clear of. Since the roof structure is the necessary defense of the home, the circumstances ought to regularly decay and sooner or later, a refurbishment and possibly even a replacement are simply needed.

There are certainly a handful of noteworthy facts that you need to think of. To start with, the majority of people having to deal with roof top simply required a low-budget mending of the busted sector on the roof structure with weather damage. Obviously, if you already have a property finance loan on your real estate, you likely are required to enjoy complete domicile insurance protection. You more than likely hold coverage if you purchased the property or home without debt. In either situation, you are probably covered with insurance for any roof injuries, so you can easily sleep very well at night time if you suppose you surely have the roof covering damages. Just keep in mind they basically only cover the cost of quality repairs that they likely will inspect. That's why you must always make sure the ideal roofing contractor goes about doing the undertaking correctly at first. or, you may possibly be needing to call the roofing expert return to rectify the slip-ups the insurance company discovered.

So, What Different Sorts Of Roof Top Injuries Should I Look To Identify?

In order to really identify a rooftop's well-being, there are assorted inquiries you will require to correctly answer subject to the brand of roof you enjoy:

Just What Are A Few Of The Merits Of the Roof Structure Replacements?

So how does the sarking underneath your roofing shingles look and feel? The membrane under the roof structure is known as sarking. Ruined sarking can imply the roof structure is requiring a whole replacement. To secure the real estate from a catastrophe, you will want to consider swift action in getting a repair completed.

Have wood rot with regards to a wood surface roof covered? As you probably will believe, this particular problem is not really good. Generally, some sort of roof structure refurbishment is definitely in your future. Do not delay before making 100% certain you choose to think about the damaged roof yourself or call up a roofing service.

Do you ever recognize any sort of deteriorated metal within the aluminum roof? Decay could certainly be the most pressing indication that the dependability of the roofing materials is already destroyed, and then it is the point in time for an inspection regarding your roofing. Do not wait for a while to look after the deterioration.

Your Roof covering tiles - Do they seem to be run down or destroyed? Certainly, it is time to look for a roofing company. A spot project is certainly obligatory. If you find the deterioration is critical, you may require having the whole roof replaced.

Once appreciating that any existing of these kinds troubles happen to be present, you need to start to find out a rooftop remedy or new roof installation. Whereas you may very well be persuaded to address the incident on your own time, the most effective use of your energy and time will likely be invested in turning the undertaking over to a roofer. Notice that there can be no responsibility to attempt to inspect the roof shingles your self to see recognize things. A number of authentic roofers will promote examinations at no cost, and so you do not be compelled to go on top of a roof top to look for wear.

Speak to us by phoning (816) 331-7663 to receive a zero cost roof covering inspection. You have got without a doubt nothing to risk!

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

You should phone Armor Roofing at the moment for a gratis examination, as a consequence you have no excuse to take care of it yourself. Immediately following a full-blown assessment, a roofing contractor must be able to convey to you with reasonable certainty what precisely your restoration possibilities are and precisely how much each will be priced at. Once it appears that the roof consultant is inclined against an entirely new roof, perhaps there are just a few points you will need to evaluate.

So Just why Should One Person Want An Entire Replacement?

The basic convenience from a great new roof, naturally, is that your roof structure ıs going to be reset to zero! This re-roof points to you getting an absolutely new, hardy, and delightful roof upon your family house, so you don't need to be overly concerned with it for quite a while. If this actually doesn’t tempt you at this point in time, a straight forward patch up will be accomplished assuming the deterioration is not actually horrid.

If you plan on marketing the property or home sometime soon, a hundred percent new roof top is just a strong choice. A proper roof should certainly heighten a residential house's price tag reasonably substantially.

Disincentives

An absolutely new roofing action would take more time than a fairly easy mending. You should not stress about this too much as long as you seek the services of the proper roof service that actually has the processes perfected. A full spanking new roofing likely will likely command in and around six-thousand to eight-thousand dollars depending on how large a house is and what design of material the roofing company is utilizing on it. If perhaps it is merely a slight job, the financial impact may be reduced, and so in the instance, you maintain a sizeable house that uses a high priced compound, it can certainly demand $40-thousand. As stated previously, this will most commonly take care of by your underwriter, though only if the contract is authorized in advance and executed in the right manner. Talk to us to assist, and we will be able to undertake more or less all that is compulsory in order to make it easier for you to attain that repayment.

Armor Roofing Contractors will certainly serve you if you think you feel that your roof might just be needing some servicing. No one bests Armor Roofing every time it comes down to individual support and value. It's best not to risk it with the roof covering. Talk to Armor Roofing right away at (816) 331-7663!

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

Armor Roofing LLC - Kansas City 6600 NW Tower Dr #104 Kansas City, MO 64151 (816) 935-9312 http://kansascity.roofsareus.com

The post Wow! Armor Roofing - Lee's Summit MO New Roof Installations appeared first on Armor Roofing Kansas City.

0 notes

bestnewsmag-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Bestnewsmag

New Post has been published on https://bestnewsmag.com/second-osx-mac-trojan-discovered/

Second OSX Mac Trojan Discovered

Within the market exists several software gears to get better facts on Mac’s primarily based computer systems.

One of them is iSkysoft facts Recuperation for a Mac; a strong product discovered to operate In the most common disaster second.

This software program comes with 4 modules: “Misplaced facts Recuperation”, “Raw information Recovery”, “Resume Recovery” and “Partition Healing”.

One of them is iSkysoft facts Recuperation for a Mac; a strong product designed to operate In the most common disaster scenarios. This software program comes with 4 modules: “Misplaced facts Recuperation”, “Raw information Recovery”, “Resume Recovery” and “Partition Healing”.

Installation: It is an easy technique, achieved completely via a wizard. We should observe that it gives the USB Installation choice, permitting to carry out the Recovery without causing in addition harm at the vacation spot difficult power.

information Recovery Modes

Lost information Healing: This mode recovers those eliminated files, deleted using Command + Delete or Trash emptied. Once this mode begins, it’s going to show the to be had nearby disk drives; the person must pick a unit and pressing the “Experiment” button the process starts of evolved. The scanning time depends upon the disk length and quantity of files saved on it. While the manner is finished, the recoverable files may be proven as a list, and the consumer may additionally preview and retrieve them to a formerly selected destination.

Raw facts Recovery: This module is usually recommended While the unit is corrupted, or it’s been formatted by way of mistake. It plays a deep Experiment recuperating documents with the aid of report-signature. The habitual’s format is much like the primary approach; the user has to select a destination and urgent the “Test” button the procedure starts of evolved. Whilst the method is accomplished, the recoverable files might be proven; in an example, the consumer can preview the documents and choose One of them. This option requires extra processing time than the “Lost statistics Restoration”; to save you it, the technique consists of filtering competencies, which reduce the scanning time.

Partition Restoration: It could be used When a partition is inaccessible because of errors or extreme harm due to accidentally removed, partition layout, resize or truly troubles related to media corruption. The technique starts Whilst the user presses the “Partition Search” button; the looking ordinary examines the elaborate partition; As soon as the procedure is completed, the recoverable documents are displayed; you could select and set a goal power, to recover them.

Resume Healing: it’s been evolved to drop briefly a protracted technique; in such conditions it’s far feasible to press the “Prevent” button, to renew the method.

End: As soon as the product’s complete trying out become completed, we’ve got visible that iSkySoft information Healing has been effective restoring diverse record kinds. Regarding its usability, we word that the application may be operated with the aid of an extensive person’s range even for novices without technical knowledge, thanks to the wizards-primarily based interface.

I just was given returned from spending a month on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It becomes an exquisite journey and I found myself delving into some exciting things while I was there.

A race of tiny people called Aluxob (the singular is Alex) stays Within the jungles and cenotes of the Yucatan. You count on I am speaking of ancient folklore? I’m no longer so sure…

I had a few non-public experiences with one approximately four years ago in my home in Puerto Aventuras (a metropolis at the beach In the Riviera Maya) and I wanted to dig into the experience a bit deeper. So I interviewed neighborhood Maya to peer what that they had to mention.

Permit me to tell you my revel in first:

I was residing in a pleasant apartment on the ocean and my daughter, Sarah, and her Mexican boyfriend, Javier, have been staying with me. a few weird things were taking place Inside the house.

Inside the midnight, I repeatedly heard someone yell my call proper in my ear and it woke me up and practically despatched me through the roof. Sarah and Javier experienced the identical element. The blender and different small appliances grew to become on Inside the midnight. while walking down the corridor, I would feel a slap on my leg just above the ankle. All this become unusual, but now not too troubling (Except flying off the bed to shut off the blender In the midnight. I hate that adrenaline rush.) The children had been experiencing the whole thing I used to be and numerous times Javier stated, “You’ve got an Alex.” Of course, I didn’t take him critically.

Until the footprints appeared Inside the hall.

This corridor went to my daughter’s room. My bedroom was on the alternative facet of the house. When I were given up early one morning and walked past it, I saw water on the ground all the manner right down to my daughter’s bedroom. I figured Sarah had taken a bath and dropped all of the ways down the hall. The floors may be very slippery, so I started to head remind her to not drip water everywhere, however as quickly as I stepped into the hall I noticed that it wasn’t just dripping water, it becomes tiny moist footprints.

“I instructed you, You have an Alex,” stated Javier.

Adequate. I assumed.

Later I went to a close buddy of mine, Crescent. She is from Canada and also lived Within the Riviera Maya in Mexico along with her Mayan husband. They personal a dive save. I requested Crescent if she knew whatever approximately an aux. She said she did not, however, she could ask her husband, William.

“Oh sure,” (Consider listening to this in a drawn-out style) stated William.

And then he proceeded to inform approximately how the fishermen see the tiny wet footprints on their boats early Inside the mornings. Mind you, I had cited not anything approximately the wet footprints in my hall.

Good enough. So now I’m certain an Alex is a real creature, not just a myth. but what precisely IS an alum?

Input this most current trip and lots of interviews.

I discovered When at the start I requested locals if they knew about the flux, they had been reluctant to mention some thing. however after I shared my tale, they have become animated and very open. a few shared memories in their own and a few thanked me for sharing mine. Reputedly, even the sharing of tales is taken into consideration a noble component and I was overjoyed to be part of that. additionally, I want to notice that I had those conversations in Spanish. maximum of those humans speak Maya. All of them characteristic day by day in Spanish, and most of them talk constrained English. talking in Spanish, I believe, changed into comforting to them and endorsed them to proportion extra freely.

things I discovered:

1. Alex live all over the peninsula, but generally Inside the jungle. no longer as many life Within the tourist areas of Quintana Roo by the beach (generally called the Riviera Maya). The farms and antique villages Within the interior state of Yucatan are rife with them. They may be taken into consideration the guardians of the jungle.

2. They may be small humans, about 18 inches excessive. I’ve examined 8db290b6e1544acaffefb5f58daa9d83 about their ability to turn into animals, but no locals showed this. They did, however, say that they disguise Within the rocks and cenotes and some stated they can form-shift and in reality make themselves appear as rocks.

3. most of the time They’re invisible to us, however from time to time They’re caught in their natural form.

four. When requested if They are the spirit or corporeal, humans responded that They may be neither. They may be AIR. That is very thrilling and I’m currently seeking to analyze greater about this. human beings also stated They may be NATURE or herbal. Does this suggest They are elemental beings (hearth, air, earth, water)? I also heard a tale of a human shape made out of water (referred to as a Kanan Saab which actually means the parent of the jungle, however, is likewise taken into consideration the mother or father of the springs) walking through the ruins at Coba. Wow… a lot to track down!

five. They like to play. once in a while the Maya human beings discover tiny toys left mendacity around the house. If They are now not happy they throw small stones or every so often hit you.

6. If They may be glad they’ll guard your private home or farm (milpa). They can be superb and beneficial if venerated effectively.

7. Farmers build homes for them to keep them off their fields. The flux will protect all four corners of the filed and if someone involves scouse borrow something, they may surround the robber so he can not break out.

eight. In Costa Rica, They’re referred to as dude.

9. VERY COOL story. The city of Cancun became building a new bridge simply outdoor the airport and it saved collapsing. The nearby Mayans went to the town and informed them that they had an aux. So the metropolis hired a Mayan shaman to contact the alum and find out what to do. The flux stated it wanted a house, so the city constructed a stunning Alex residence Inside the form of a pyramid below the bridge. Then they had been capable of finishing the work at the bridge. It still stands these days and not using troubles and the pyramid-house is there all lit up at night time and beautiful for everybody to peer as they head out from the airport and into the beach strip on the excursion.

10. If you have an aux in your home and you need it to go away, you (or ideally a Mayan shaman, referred to as a J-Guy) can do a ceremony with herbs and plant life (I am hoping to research more approximately this) such as burning incense made from the resin of the copal tree.

I have extra questions on the flux. I have examined they dress like the historic Maya. A number of the humans I interviewed have seen them or have stories of family members who have seen them. I forgot to invite what they have been wearing, but I can pass again and notice if I can song that down. I also want to know greater approximately their nature. What does it suggest that They may be AIR?

In my interviewing, I additionally heard a tale of various beings referred to as gnomes (mentioned Within the Spanish manner nome-es) They were described as being bigger than an alum, having horns, having an ugly nature, carrying knives, inflicting youngsters to harm each other and argue, sporting black sombreros, and needing to be evicted by means of a ceremony finished inclusive of a Bible. I ponder, are additionally they air or are they earth?

we have a lot to learn.

Cheers

Laura

Poverty Task Global became based once I spent five years residing in Mexico and Crucial The use. presently, I have a home in an exceptionally poor neighborhood in Panama. The plan changed into to look these human beings lives from the internal so that I might study higher the way to help them. Within the process, I discovered that they keep secrets and have the beauty I by no means predicted. you can locate my book I RAN AWAY TO MEXICO: A Surprising Nonsecular Adventure with the aid of Laura LaBrie on Amazon. however extra importantly, you may find out what it looks like to stay Inside the jungles and islands of Crucial America and Mexico and the way to tour in a manner that connects you to the locals by way of going to

I regularly pay attention from wives who are attempting very difficult to select up the portions in their lives and to move on with dignity and charm after their husband cheated or had an affair. however, irrespective of how well intentioned or decided you are, this will be easier said than accomplished. Your head can apprehend matters that your heart cannot. you could have steel clear up Inside the morning best to fall apart via night time fall.

And, even though your husband can tell you all those matters he thinks which you need to pay attention, a hearing could be very exceptional than sincerely believing. I regularly hear comments like “my husband ended his affair. He says he realizes now that he made a mistake and that he loves me. He says he’s placing our own family first. And, all of this stuff sound genuinely exact. however, I recognize too much approximately the alternative lady and about their courting. She’s young. She’s pretty. She’s carefree. He dealt with her like gold and risked the whole lot for her. I recognize I can’t compete with that. And it makes me experience 2nd high-quality. I recognize that my husband is home and he is doing what he thinks he is speculated to do. however, I cannot assist but marvel if it weren’t for the kids if he’d nevertheless be here. I experience like I best got him returned via default. How can I be getting over feeling second excellent and like I am no longer true enough? he is no longer telling me this, but I feel it simply the equal.”

those worries are so commonplace. better halves who are seeking to get over affairs question the entirety about themselves, their marriages, their husbands, and about that identical husband’s feelings. Infidelity feels like a complete rejection, even when your husband will swear that this isn’t the case. You may, as many do, feel like you are what is leftover Whilst things didn’t training session. And, This is horribly painful. The aspect is, It is very unfair a good way to have to deliver these emotions around with you when you were not the only who set this complete thing into movement. Within the following article, I’m able to talk a few ways to Forestall feeling like second fine after your husband had an affair.

Location The focus On What Makes You experience higher In place of On What Makes You sense Worse: At the threat of sounding insensitive, I understand from revel in that It’s very easy to Location your recognition on what feels the worst. despite the fact that you are aware of it’s not efficient, despite the fact that you know it’s not moving you ahead, the thoughts that hurt the worst are the ones that hold doping up the maximum. And It is very tempting and smooth to stay on them.

It’s so tempting to simply kind of sink into it. Due to the fact you do not know how to begin to dig yourself out and irrespective of what you do, the thoughts just hold coming. That is why, to break this cycle, you have to react as soon as you find the mind coming. Replace the bad thoughts with something that makes you feel higher approximately yourself. So, as soon as You have got a thought or feeling that makes you sense second excellent or no longer suitable enough or now not attractive, do something that makes you experience proactively.

This takes exercise. It might experience stupid. And quite certainly, once in a while, It is easier to just provide into the terrible. but in my enjoy while you start to be proactive and you take the advantageous movement in response to bad thoughts, you start to take away the power over the negativity. right here’s an example. In my very own enjoy, Whilst those sabotaging mind got here, I’d Stop what I used to be doing and take a stroll. Or I would exercise session. Or, perhaps I might name a supportive and nonjudgmental friend. Or I would go to the arcade with my children. Essentially, I’d discover something to derail my mind and make me sense like I wasn’t giving in to them.

In the end, the taking walks and exercising grew to become out to be a good call Due to the fact I Lost weight and toned up. This modified my appearance a bit and gave me greater self-belief which results in me making greater changes in my life. The weight reduction added to a brand new manner of searching for my look, myself, and what I was portraying the arena. Due to the fact what you portray to the arena can become the way that you see yourself.

Once you see yourself in a greater advantageous way, you begin to grow to be a lot more protective of your piece of Thoughts and properly being. and also you begin seeing the ones bad thoughts because the enemy which you aren’t going to Allow invade that hard fought peace of Mind. This does not happen overnight of a route. It’s a difficult method and it takes time.

but fighting it each step of the way and ensuring you circulate towards the nice offers you the sense of control which you deserve. No, you did not have any manipulate over his cheating or affair. That became the movement that he selected to take without your input. however, you do have manage over your very own thoughts and movements. And, you cannot sense 2nd first-rate unless you allow the ones mind to take maintain. when you start to sense 2d satisfactory, It is as much as you to do so to derail this Until you regain a few control and build yourself as much as an area wherein you start to recognize and believe that this just isn’t authentic.

0 notes

localfreshies · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Local Freshies | Be a local wherever you go

New Post has been published on http://localfreshies.com/historic-wallace-northern-idahos-best-kept-secret-for-skiing/

Historic Wallace - Northern Idaho's Best Kept Secret for Skiing

Exploration. Adventure. Culture. Those are the things I personally look for when skiing & snowboarding. Growing up a Midwest kid, I’ve always looked for mountains and ski-towns that were different and untainted… Special gems that are less corporate and more pure. The town of Wallace along with Lookout Pass Ski Area and Silver Mountain Ski Resort fit that requirement to a tee. Who knew nestled in the Idaho panhandle something so special and pure existed.

How did we find Wallace?

Traveling from Lake Tahoe to Whitefish, MT, most of the road meanders its way through small hills and massive valleys. The one exception is a section of I-90 in Northern Idaho, where the Bitterroot Mountains rise. They looked massive and were slathered with snow. I mentally filed away this mountain range for a later trip, as I knew I had to return someday.

Powder and Uncrowded Slopes

Enjoying some fresh snow off trail

Planning for our Local Freshies® winter road trip, I pulled up the Bitterroot Mountain range and did some research. Two ski resorts sat in these peaks with thousands of acres of terrain! They both receive over 300″of snow annually and are far enough away from the Pacific Ocean to accumulate dry, less dense snow. From what I could tell, both Lookout Pass and Silver Mountain looked amazing. On the map right smack dab in the middle was a small town named Wallace. It looked like the perfect home base to hit both resorts. With a town to stay and mountains to ride, it was official – Local Freshies® was heading to Northern Idaho.

The Hills became Mountains

With the sun shining, we left Tahoe and drove up through Oregon and into Idaho. The scenery was beautiful but lacked the grandiose mountains we craved. Passing through Coeur d’Alene, the large valleys began to narrow, inlaid with winding roads. The hills quickly transformed into magnificent peaks blanketed by the color white. Approaching the town of Wallace, road signs appeared stating “Historic Wallace.” I’ve never read a sign that actually stated “Historic” in the name of a town. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Walt Disney once said “…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” We arrived in town early and were eager to find out the history behind this name.

Why is Wallace called “Historic” Wallace?

The North Pacific Depot

Pulling into town, the first beautiful building we saw was the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot Museum. This remarkably preserved building seemed like a good place to learn the history of “Historic Wallace.” As we stepped into the museum, we were greeted by Shauna Hillman. We asked about Wallace and the historic moniker. She smiled with pride and said it’s because Wallace is the only town where the ENTIRE TOWN is on the national historic registry. Wow… But how does an entire town earn that designation?

The only stoplight on I-90

Back in 1978, Wallace was slated to be razed by the Department of Transportation, placing I-90 right through the middle of it. The community knew if this happened, it was the end for this special place. To fight the government, the residents worked tirelessly and had the ENTIRE town put onto the national historic registry. This classification halted the I-90 construction for over 17 years! During this period, Wallace was the only traffic light for the 3,000 mile expressway, from Boston to Seattle. Just imagine doing 55 mph, potentially for thousands of miles, and running into a traffic light. Amazing that this little hamlet could halt the government and hold strong as a community! Today, I-90 is complete but as an elevated ramp on the side of the valley instead of through Wallace, keeping the entire town dating back to the late 1800’s, exquisitely preserved and intact.

Looking from the outside, it doesn’t seem like your typical mining town. When you envision a place focused on digging and removing minerals, you think clapboards and old wooden structures, like Virginia City, NV. A more temporary place, built for a purpose but not for families and generations to come. Instead, Wallace was built to last. Each building was constructed out of brick and masonry, which was not widespread at that time. Shauna suggested we head over to the mining museum to learn more about the town’s unique past.

Fighting the man… that’s what Wallace is about

That’s one serious drill

A couple of blocks down, we met Tammy Copelan, the Exec. Director of the Mining Museum. As she walked us through the exhibits, we could feel there was something different about this mining history. In Nevada, the mining tycoons created an environment where silver was king and lives were worth less while in the Silver Valley in Idaho, the workers united and actually held power. They unionized and fought against the “man.” In fact, the miners blew up a mine AND assassinated a governor with explosives just to get their points across. Talk about banding together in an era where these uprisings were unheard of, especially where the workers prevailed.

There was a theme forming about this place – an air of strength, unity and pride. We said our goodbyes and headed to dinner, meeting up with with her husband Dave, from the Wallace Chamber, for a bite to eat.

City Limits… great food and awesome beers

Small towns have perks. Everyone knows each other and Wallace makes sure to roll out the red carpet for visitors. As we step into the City Limits Brewpub,we were surprised at how big the interior is. TVs at the bar play hockey and lots of tables filled the inside. The walls are adorned in locally sourced pine, and in the far corner, a gentleman waves at us – it’s Dave! In a town this size, it must be easy to notice new faces. Sitting down, Dave gave us some recommendations on local favorites as we ordered food and beers. We enjoyed tasting all their beers, and a few of the more unique brews stuck with us.

Loft Honey – Named after the bar at Lookout Pass Ski area, this beer could be considered “dangerous” since it tastes light but has an ABV of nearly 8.5%. It packs a BIG wallop for such an easy-drinking beer.

Citra Peak IPA – If you’re looking to expand your horizon’s in the IPA world, this may be your go-to beer. It is a non-IPA drinker’s IPA. It holds slightly tangy notes but doesn’t smack you upside the head from the hops.

Pulaski Porter – Ed Pulaski was a forest ranger that saved over 40 people during the Great Fire. Just like Ed, this beer is smokey but finishes velvety smooth.

Cripple Creek – When the brewery opened, the miners in the area were used to more “domestic” beers with lower content. After a couple of these, some say they’d walk home a little wobbly-kneed from the undetectable higher ABV. Since Cripple Creek runs right under the brewery, what better name for a beer?

Build it and they will come

A great example of the amazing architecture in Wallace

While we wait for our food, Dave goes into why Wallace was so well constructed. In 1890, a massive fire came through the town and burned all structures but one to the ground. With access to the richest silver district in the nation along with other precious minerals, Wallace was in the perfect place to attract mining companies. To make themselves stand out, the town made the decision to re-build with brick and mortar instead of wood. This was an influential decision and eight mining companies made their Headquarters here until the 1980s. Even today, there is active mining in the area. Preserving their history while continuing to mine, Wallace has transformed themselves into a great visitor destination, combining all that they are for the ultimate experience.

Homemade Raviolis to die for

As the plates arrive, our attention is diverted to the food. We may be a few hundred miles away from the ocean, but the “Steamers” appetizer is an amazing choice. Normally, steamed clams are in a thin-wine sauce but at City Limits, it’s the perfect amount of butter and goodness. The sauce accentuates the flavor of the clams instead of taking away from it.

If your looking for something a bit more unique, the homemade raviolis are a must try. Instead of the typical small-rounded pasta, they give you three HUGE raviolis that your grandmother would make. You can order them filled with cheese or house-made sausage as well as options for the sauce. Our version was the house-made sausage wrapped in a buttery sauce with chunks of bacon. The perfect comfort food on a cold winter’s day. If that seems a bit too heavy, the Reuben is a great sandwich option. The toast was crispy enough to give a crunch but the meat was the star. They made sure not to put on too much “special” sauce and let the tender meat take over the show.

With our stomachs full, it was time to prep for tomorrow… Lookout Pass, here we come!

#For the Winter #History #Idaho #Visit Idaho #Wallace

0 notes