#Fable & Black

[richard-hei-long]

Shadow Master Marinette

Who here is a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen and Miraculous Ladybug? Because I am!

And as such it's only natural for me to do a crossover involving the two.

The premise for this particular idea? Well, we'll be looking at a what if scenario where Marinette Dupain-Cheng has the fabled Ten Shadows Technique from Jujutsu Kaisen and how that would change the story, from her childhood all the way up to the war against Hawkmoth.

First of all, we need to figure out how Marinette would have the Ten Shadows, so we're going to need some LOOOOOOOOORE to figure it out.

While you can make your own backstory on how it happened, here's my take: Long ago a member of the Zen'in Clan who wasn't a complete dipshit married a Chinese Sorcerer and got married, and then their union produced the bloodline that would go on to produce Sabine and, therefore, Marinette.

Yup, in this timeline Marinette is not only French/Italian/Chinese, but also a bit Japanese!(Albeit rather distantly due to the Zen'in staying in China and their bloodline propagating there)

Naturally, this means that Sabine is also a Jujutsu Sorcerer, and considering the kind of person she is she also likely taught Tom how to used Cursed Energy. So not only is Marinette getting an upgrade here, but her parents are as well!

Here's a quick rundown on their Cursed Techniques.

Sabine's CT is Cursed Amplification, which allows her to amp up any aspect of herself or an ally. What that means is that she can amplify the power of her strikes to make the lightest tap hit like a truck, strengthen the durability of her body to be practically indestructible, increase the healing speed of Reversed Cursed Technique, and even increase her chances of landing a Black Flash!

Tom Cursed Technique is the much more simple Nature's Gift, which is basically a lesser version of Hanami' Disaster Plants due to Tom lacking the needed Cursed Energy reserves. Despite Tom's CT technically being weaker than Hanami's he makes up for it in knowledge and creativity, allowing him to catch up and catch opponents off guard.

Together, they're the Nightmare of Nature, with Sabine amping up Tom's Technique to the point it makes Hanami look weak in comparison.

(To give a general idea of their power, Sabine is a Special-Grade Sorcerer while Tom is Semi-Grade 1)

But enough about her parents! Lets move onto the star of the show!

Now Marinette's life is mostly the same, with the exception of her papa having some cool magic tricks that he shows her, but diverges on her fourth birthday when a smol pair of wolves pop out of her shadow, surprising the little bean.

After a brief panic from both Marinette and her parents Tom and Sabine calm her down and explain to her that this is just her Cursed Technique coming in and that there's nothing to be afraid of, Tom emphasising the point by picking the two Gyokuken up and placing them in his lap, which the two allow as their connection to Marinette make them instinctually friendly to her loved ones.

Seeing her Shikigami being so passive, Marinette tentatively reaches out to pet them and receives affectionate licks in return, causing the bluenette to quickly come to love these gud bois!

So caught up in playing with her shadow puppers, she doesn't noticed her parents exchanging a look with each other.

They had planned to begin teaching her Jujutsu when she turned six, but the emergence of this legendary Cursed Technique in their daughter has pushed their plans up to now.

And so, they began teaching Marinette the ways of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, dividing which of them teaches what depending on their expertise in that particular aspect of Jujutsu.

Sabine teaches her about raw Cursed Energy Manipulation, Cursed Energy Reinforcement, Cursed Energy Detection, the history and known capabilities of the Ten Shadows Technique, and tops it with lessons on various martial arts to supplement Marinette's fighting style to ensure her daughter isn't a sitting duck without her Shikigami around to protect her.

Tom, meanwhile, focuses more on encouraging Marinette to be creative with her Cursed Technique, to constantly do unexpected things with it to catch opponents off guard. He also teaches her how to use Reversed Cursed Technique as while Sabine is technically better at it than him, that's mainly due to her using Cursed Amplification to ramp up it's efficiency while Tom has to do it the natural way.

When it comes to stuff like Binding Vows, Cursed Tools, how to analyse opponents and exploit their weaknesses, and the various ways to boost Cursed Techniques they take turns teaching their daughter, as they both have their own unique way of doing it when it comes to those things.

Marinette also did a bit of training by herself. Nothing serious or dangerous, but she did practice with the Ten Shadows Technique, both in working in tandem with the Gyokuken and using it's subsidiary abilities like Shadow Diving, Shadow Storage, and making Shadow Clones of herself(she loved using them to prank her parents). She also played quite a few more games, both to increase her reaction time and reflexes and to help her problem solving skills.

During this time she also learned the unique ability of the Gyokuken, being able to merge together to form a werewolf-like Shikigami that was powerful enough to give her papa some trouble against it(Tom still won due to experience, but it was still a challenge for him).

She also named her doggos, giving them Japanese names in honour of her Japanese roots, even if they aren't very prevalent to her nowadays. The white wolf is Akari, the black wolf was named Yamimaru, and she calls their merged form Twilight.

Finally, an entire year had passed since her birthday, marking her as now being five years old, she decided it was time to attempt a Subjugation Ritual. And with the knowledge Sabine had passed onto her about the Ten Shadows Technique, she decided that Gama(The toad) was the safest option, just to get a general feel for it.

Her parents were still on standby, of course, just in case things go sideways.

And so Marinette made her preparations, clearing out a room in the bakery so Gama wouldn't have anything to throw at her, did a full song and dance number with music and finishing with a loud "Merged Beast: Werewolf!" to summon a supercharged Twilight, and made multiple Shadow Clones as decoys before beginning the Ritual.

But, as it turned it, these preparation were completely unnecessary as Gama didn't even get the chance to move before Twilight was already ripping them limb from limb and painting the walls with the Shikigami's blood.

Marinette felt cheated.

To make his daughter feel better Tom decided to fight her so her preparations didn't go to waste, however he quickly realised this was the wrong move when he could barely keep up with the powered-up Twilight, barely avoiding getting gored on the Shikigami's claws.

And then a sudden reappearance by Gama left Tom on the ground, wrapped up by a very long tongue. Sabine had a good laugh as her husband got beat by their five year old daughter.

"Good job sweetie."

"Thanks mama."

(Note: If Marinette were to fight Tom herself she'd have to rely heavily on her Shadow Clone just to even the score, the reason she won here was because of her jacked up Shikigami)

And so begins another year for our little hero, and the beginning of a pattern for her. For most of the year she trains her skills, gaining new ones and refining the ones she already has, along with practicing with her Shikigami and occasionally go Curse hunting with her parents. But when her birthday comes back around, she does another Subjugation Ritual to add another Shikigami to her ranks.

On her sixth birthday Marinette had Gama tie Orochi down to let Twilight go ham on the giant snake.

On her seventh birthday Nue was squashed against the ceiling of the Parisian catacombs, crushed between it and Orochi's massive head.

On her eighth birthday Marinette dug a giant hole and summoned Bansho in it, baiting the elephant Shikigami to fill it with water before having Nue take her out of the pit and zapping Bansho's water hole.

On her ninth birthday Marinette committed rabbit genocide.

On her tenth birthday Marinette used Datto to blind Kangyu before having Akari and Yamimaru tear the tendons of the ox Shikigami, disabling it's movement and, by extension, it's ability.

A few months before her eleventh birthday Marinette broke tradition and had Well's Unknown Abyss hold Madoka still to let Kangyu ram the deer Shikigami into oblivion. The reason for this? She discovered Rose's illness and found it's existence to be unacceptable, so she decided to get the "Miracle of the Ten Shadows" early in order to heal her friend.

On her twelfth birthday Marinette had just decided to combo Koso into oblivion and not give them a chance to fight back due to her lack of information on them.

And so the moment the tiger Shikigami appeared it was immediately ambushed by Orochi, who brought it up into the sky to get electrocuted by Nue a bit before Orochi curled it's massive body and brought Koso back down to the ground in an incredibly painful manner.

The snake Shikigami was then dispelled, but they were immediately replaced with a swarm of rabbit Shikigami that blocked Koso's sight. This was intentional, as Marinette had also used Datto to push herself high into the sky in order to summon Bansho and drop the elephant Shikigami onto the Divine Guard after Datto was dismissed.

Jumping up, Marinette allowed Nue to grab her and take her away as Bansho was dispelled. Koso got up on all fours, ready to pursue, only for a long tongue to snag their ankle and send them flying into the path of Kangyu, who had been running for quite some time and built up plenty of distance for it's charge, instantly killing the tiger Shikigami.

And thus, Marinette now had nine different Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique under her command, officially classifying her as a Special-Grade Sorcerer.

All that was left, was him.

The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.

And so, on her thirteenth birthday, Marinette... Took a break.

She had a classic party with all her friends, eating good food, playing party games, and just generally having a good time simply existing.

It wasn't that she wasn't confident in her abilities, oh no. It's just that this is Mahoraga we're talking about here! The trump card of the Ten Shadows! The untameable beast! The strongest Shikigami in existence! He Who Knows No Bounds!

And given how long the Ten Shadows Technique has been around I wouldn't be surprised if a user or two got into conflict with Miraculous Holders in the past and summoned the Divine General as a last resort, ending up with everyone dead and several Miraculous being lost in the heat of battle.

And so, instead of risking her life duking it out with the most absolute unit of the Ten Shadows Technique Marinette decided to further refine herself and her Cursed Technique.

But lets put a pin in all this for a minute and see how all this has effected Marinette's school life.

Taking a glance into the average day in Mme. Bustier's classroom we find that the dynamics are mostly the same between the various classmates, but everyone is much calmer and friendlier with each other. This is because Marinette has the Ten Shadows Technique, and as it turns out having a small army of shadow monsters with various abilities under your command is a good deterrent against the local bully.

In other words, Marinette doesn't tolerate Chloe's bullshit and threatens to feed her to her dogs if the blonde doesn't behave herself.

Chloe tried to called upon her father's authority to even the odds, but no amount of political power is gonna save you from getting swallowed whole by a giant snake or trampled by an elephant.

With Chloe forced to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down lest she become literal dog food, the classroom is a much more harmonious place thanks to it's resident Beast Tamer keeping the peace.

Marinette also has a defined friend group from the start.

First up, Nino. This boi has been her friend since forever and is one of the few people Marinette has felt safe passing the knowledge of Cursed Energy onto, the others being the other members of her friend group.

He has his canon crush on her, but Marinette sees him more like a brother.

Next is... Nathanial! I like the idea of him being friends with Marinette as they're both artistic individuals with animosity towards Chloe for her constant cruelty. Plus, they're both in the Art Club so them bonding over their respective art forms isn't that much of a sketch- I mean stretch!

He also has a bit of a crush on her, but Marinette views him as her best friend.

For Marinette's next friends, it's a two-for-one deal as it's Juleka and Rose! They're both part of the canon "Girl Squad", they're both part of the Art Club like Mari and Nath, and in this timeline Marinette broke her own tradition and fought a battle to the death just to cure Rose of her illness despite them not being friends at the time, so in their opinion Marinette is the class hero!

While the two of them are loyal girlfriends to each other they both admitted to having small crushes on Marinette and wouldn't mind giving a poly-relationship a try if Marinette asked. Meanwhile Marinette is the biggest supporter of their relationship and views them as great friends.

Her friendship with them also means Marinette occasionally hangs out with Ivan due to Kitty Section connection and having already met Luka, although she just considers herself on friendly terms with them rather than fully fledged friends.

Finally, Marinette has one more friend in her group and it is... Sabrina! Betcha didn't see that one coming ay?

So, to explain, after Marinette's initial threat to Chloe she saw the blonde treating Sabrina like a slave and said "Not on my watch foul knave!" before sweeping Sabrina off of her feet and whisking her away to a paradise of friendship and happiness!

That's how Sabrina sees it anyway. In actuality Marinette just asked Sabrina if she wanted to be friends and hang out with her, to which Sabrina gladly accepted. Although there was some friction at first as Sabrina wasn't used to healthy relationships, causing her to try to be Marinette's servant in all but name(Don't worry, she got better).

And, of course, Sabrina has a crush on her, because of course she does. But unfortunately for her Marinette only sees her as a friend and a victim of abuse, so sorry little police pupper but you ain't getting the class cinnamon roll in this timeline.

...Unless?

Anyways I feel like I got a little off topic here, so back to Marinette having the Ten Shadows Technique.

So one day Marinette is just chilling in her room, hanging out with her dogs, and playing a two-player game with Koso as her number two. However she's been a bit bored recently, having essentially mastered most of the abilities of the Ten Shadows Technique with only her Domain Expansion and further refinement being options for her.

Then, she comes to a thought. What if the Ten Shadows Technique had more capabilities available to her than she knew? It wasn't completely implausible after all, since she doubted the first Ten Shadows User knew all of the things she did right now, so why not explore her Cursed Technique for a bit?

After finishing the level she and Koso were on Marinette dismissed her two Shikigami before summoning Nue and slipping into it's shadow and mentally commanding them to fly out of the city's bounds.

Once there, she popped out of Nue's shadow and dismissed them before thinking about the possibilities of her Technique. During which, she asked herself one simple question, one that changed the entire way she thought about the Ten Shadows Technique.

Why ten?

Why were there only ten Shikigami available to subjugate and summon? Why was she limited to only having ten Shikigami? Why was there any limit to the Shikigami when the Ten Shadows Technique had many more applications to it?

The answer? There wasn't. As proven when Marinette made a Shadow Hand Puppet in the shape of a horse and entered a subjugation ritual with a completely new Shikigami, one that took the form of a black horse with blazing red eyes and blood red flames replacing it's mane and leg hair.

Naturally, she curbstomped it quickly with the help of Bansho and Twilight, but she didn't pay much attention to that. What she did pay attention to was the fact that she just busted the limits of her Cursed Technique!

For the next few hours Marinette went on a rampage against her own Technique, conquering Shikigami after Shikigami, adding more and more to her arsenal of abilities with each successful subjugation.

She also now understood why the Ten Shadows Technique was the rival of the Limitless and Six Eyes, for it's utility seemed boundless right now!

'No...' Marinette thought, 'It's no longer the Ten Shadows Technique, for that name is misleading. From now on it shall be called the Shadow Master Technique!'

With her newly dubbed "Shadow Master Technique", Marinette summoned Nue and returned home, using one of her new Shikigami's abilities to hide the two of them from sight so that she could go directly to her balcony without drawing attention to herself.

'Watch out Mahoraga, for I'm coming for you.' Marinette Dupain-Cheng vowed, determined to tame the legendary Shikigami.

What do you guys think so far? Is this worth continuing? Will Marinette the Shadow Master be the one to tame Mahoraga? How do you think the Miraculous will effect her? Comment your thoughts down below!

(Also, I couldn't figure out how to Linebreak so I just used a GIF of Mahoraga)

[emilyccannings]

This box is so special for me as I adore this series it is just epic fantasy that if you haven’t picked it up yet and your a fan of fantasy definitely try it. This particular box is so epic from Illumicrate. I have to say all of their Exclusive Edition Boxes have been amazing.

So here are all the items in the box. Let me know what you think of the items and whether you have read the series in the comments below:

Here is the stunning book Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff signed and designed endpapers with yellow sprayed edges.

  A detailed Mia Pop which has been created by Illumicrate.

  Striking bookmark set that was created by Merwild you can find more of this beautiful artwork on @merwildandco.

  A Corvere crest necklace that I love but is a bit heavy from Danielle you can find more of her work on @dalandan.ielle.

  These two pins are just so mesmerizing they are made by Fable & Black. You can find more of their work on https://fableandblack.co.uk/

A detailed wooden map of Itreya that I love because part way to my heart is a beautiful map. This is created by Virginia Allyn and James Orr (@virginiaallyn).

  This is an exciting extra which is a booklet that includes behind the scenes secrets about the adaptation that is being created. The cover art work is created by Nan Fe (@nanfe1789).

  A bath bomb in the shape of a cat which for me I would love to see more bath bombs in my subscription boxes. This was created by GeekyClean (@geekyclean).

  I now have three mugs designed by this creator and I love everyone of them they are stunning designs and a good size. I would love her to make tote bags and scarves with her designs on them. This is designed by Rosie you can find more of her work at @rosiethorns88.

  A warm and cosy blanket that I can’t wait to curl up in. This is created by Yoshi Yoshitani (@yoshiyoshitani).

A pretty collectible coin that is designed by Monolime you find more of this work at @monolimeart.

  This is a stunning piece of artwork which I will definitely frame which was created by Arz (@arz28).

  A sturdy and striking book sleeve that I am excited to use. These two design are created by Chatty Nora (@chattynora) and Monolime (@monolimeart).

  As always keep geeking!

Don’t forget to say Hi to me on my Social Mediaring: Twitter:https://twitter.com/EmilyCCannings

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012996617048

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11006007-emily-cannings

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyloveslondon_booklover/

© 2019 Emily Claire Cannings

Illumicrate Darkdawn Exclusive Edition Box All the goodies in my Illumicrate Darkdawn Exclusive Edition Box! This box is so special for me as I adore this series it is just epic fantasy that if you haven't picked it up yet and your a fan of fantasy definitely try it.

[cleonique]

“Cyclops” for the Yokai Show: An Art Exhibition of Folklore & Fables at Giant Robot Store gallery✨

Materials:

- Schmincke watercolors

- Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star Matte ink

- Khadi Handmade Paper

- Kuretake Zig Brush

⭐️Available⭐️

[lucienballard]

The Velvet Underground’s 30 greatest songs – ranked!

30. Ride Into the Sun (1969)The Velvets recorded two versions of Ride Into the Sun: a fabulous 1969 instrumental laden with fuzz guitar and a hushed 1970 vocal take backed by organ. Somewhere between the two lies one of their great lost songs; Lou Reed’s disappointingly flat 1972 solo version doesn’t do it justice at all.

29. Run Run Run (1967)For all the shock engendered by the lyrics of Heroin and I’m Waiting for My Man, the most malevolent-sounding track on the debut album might be Run Run Run, a powerful R&B groove lent a gripping darkness by Reed’s noisy guitar playing and the screw-you-I-take-drugs sneer of his vocals.

28. Beginning to See the Light (1969)The title suggests awakening, the melody is bright, but the lyrics are dark and bitter. They may have been directed at John Cale, who played on an initial version of the song, which was subsequently re-recorded after Reed sacked him, against the wishes of his bandmates. A ferocious 1969 live version amps up the tension.

27. Foggy Notion (1969)Reed was a lifelong doo-wop fan. His passion usually found its expression when the Velvet Underground recorded backing vocals for their ballads – as on Candy Says – but the tough, rocking Foggy Notion went a stage further, gleefully stealing a chunk of the Solitaires’ 1955 single Later for You Baby.

26. The Gift (1968)In which the band set a two-chord grind that may, or may not, have been based on their instrumental Booker T in one channel and a blackly comic Reed short story read by Cale in the other. “If you’re a mad fiend like we are, you’ll listen to them both together,” offered the producer, Tom Wilson.

25. Guess I’m Falling in Love (1967)Recorded at the White Light/White Heat sessions, but never completed, the April 1967 live recording of Guess I’m Falling in Love – taped at the Gymnasium in New York – will more than suffice. It boasts three chords, a distinct rhythm and blues influence, Reed in streetwise, so-what punk mode and explosive guitar solos somehow potentiated by the rough sound quality.

24. Temptation Inside Your Heart (1968)“It was not Mein Kampf – my struggle,” the guitarist Sterling Morrison once reflected of the Velvet Underground’s career. “It was fun.” A delightful late Cale-era outtake that inadvertently captured Morrison, Cale and Reed’s giggly backchat as they recorded the backing vocals, Temptation Inside Your Heart bears that assessment out.

23. New Age (1970)New Age comes in two varieties. Take your pick from the world-weary, small-hours rumination found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, or the more epic studio version that the Velvets biographer Victor Bockris suggested was “an attempt to present some encouraging statements to a confused audience as the 70s began”. Both are superb.

22. After Hours (1969)The Velvets’ eponymous 1969 album ends, improbably, with the drummer, Moe Tucker, singing a song that could have dated from the pre-rock era. The twist is that her childlike voice and the cute melody conceals an almost unbearably sad song, ostensibly a celebration of small-hours boozing, but filled with longing and regret.

21. I Can’t Stand It (1969)Amid the Velvets’ songs about drugs and drag queens lurked the plaintive sound of Reed pining for his college sweetheart, Shelley Albin, the subject of Pale Blue Eyes, I Found a Reason and I Can’t Stand It. The latter’s cocky strut is disrupted by a desperate lyrical plea: “If Shelley would just come back, it’d be all right.”

20. The Black Angel’s Death Song (1967)There is something folky and vaguely Dylan-esque at the heart of The Black Angel’s Death Song, but by the time Cale had finished with it – alternately strafing it with screeching, insistent viola and hissing into the microphone in lieu of a chorus – it sounded, and still sounds, unique.

19. I Found a Reason (1970)It is one of the ironies of the Velvet Underground that the most forward-thinking, groundbreaking band of their era could occasionally sound like old-fashioned rock’n’roll revivalists. Buried on side two of Loaded was one of the loveliest of Lou Reed’s loving homages to doo-wop, complete with spoken-word section.

18. Some Kinda Love (1969)Musically straightforward, sensual in tone, Some Kinda Love is a complex business, part seduction soundtrack, part refusal to be hemmed in by standard categories of sexuality – “no kinds of love are better than others … the possibilities are endless / and for me to miss one / would seem to be groundless”. Killer line: “Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.”

17. European Son (1967)European Son isn’t a song so much as an eruption. It sounds like a band overturning the established order of rock’n’roll, almost literally: after two brief verses, it bursts into thrilling frantic chaos with a verbatim crash, like the contents of an upended table hitting the floor.

16. Rock & Roll (1970)It is hard to see Loaded’s driving, joyous hymn to music’s redemptive power – “her life was saved by rock and roll” – as anything other than disguised autobiography on the part of Reed. The suggestion that music will endure “despite all the amputations”, meanwhile, seems to look forward to his departure from the Velvet Underground.

15. Candy Says (1969)No one else in 1969 was writing songs remotely like Candy Says, a stunning, tender pen portrait of the transgender Warhol superstar Candy Darling set to a gentle doo-wop inspired backing. Its melancholy seems to presage the note Darling wrote on her deathbed in 1974: “I had no desire for life left … I am just so bored by everything.”

14. Sunday Morning (1967)Sunday Morning was written at the behest of Wilson. He wanted a single that might conceivably get on the radio; he got a haunting, melancholy sigh of a song, its battered wistfulness and undercurrent of paranoia – “watch out, the world’s behind you” – the perfect encapsulation of morning-after regret.

13. What Goes On (1969)Morrison maintained that the studio incarnation of What Goes On wasn’t a patch on the live versions the band performed with Cale on organ. Maybe, but the studio incarnation featuring Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, is great. It prickles with nervous energy, Reed’s guitar playing is amazing, its churning coda takes up half the song and it still feels too short.

12. Femme Fatale (1967)Apparently provoked by the damaged, doomed Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick – with whom Cale had a brief affair – Femme Fatale is as beautiful and fragile as its inspiration. The story of a wary, ruined former suitor warning others off the titular anti-heroine is lent a chilly edge by Nico’s delivery.

11. I Heard Her Call My Name (1968)In the Velvets’ early days, Reed purported to be “the fastest guitarist alive”. A berserk claim, but his Ornette Coleman-inspired solos on I Heard Her Call My Name are some of the most extraordinary and viscerally exciting in rock history, frequently atonal, spiked with ear-splitting feedback and pregnant pauses.

10. Ocean (1969)The Velvet Underground recorded Ocean several times – one version is supposed to feature the return of Cale on organ – but never released it in their lifetime, which seems extraordinary. It is among the greatest of their later songs, its atmosphere beautiful, the epic ebb and flow of its sound completely immersive.

9. I’m Waiting for the Man (1967)An unvarnished lyrical depiction of scoring drugs tied to music on which Reed’s rock’n’roll smarts and Cale’s background in minimalist classical music – the pounding, one-chord piano part – meld in a kind of relentless perfection. Amusingly, there is now a pharmacy at the song’s fabled location of Lexington 125.

8. I’ll Be Your Mirror (1967)A song about Reed’s affair with Nico that could just as easily be about Andy Warhol’s approach to art, I’ll Be Your Mirror is one of those Velvet Underground tracks that makes their initial commercial failure seem baffling. How could a pop song as wonderful as this fail to attract attention? Nico and Morrison on stage at the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry annual dinner in 1966.

7. White Light/White Heat (1968)A delirious paean to amphetamine, its subject reflected in the lyrics – “I surely do love to watch that stuff tip itself in” – and the turbulent, distorted rush of its sound. The band appear to be barely in control as it careers along; the chaotic finale, where Cale finally loses his grip on the bass line, is just fantastic.

6. Heroin (1967)Heroin was the deal-breaker at early Velvets gigs, provoking a “howl of bewilderment and outrage”. The shock of its subject matter has dulled with time, but its surges from folky lament to sonic riot still sound breathtaking. Oddly sweet moment: Reed’s chuckle as Tucker loses her place amid the maelstrom and suddenly stops playing.

5. Pale Blue Eyes (1969)“High energy does not necessarily mean fast,” Reed once argued. “High energy has to do with heart.” Hushed, limpidly beautiful and almost unbearably sad, Pale Blue Eyes’ depiction of a strained, adulterous relationship proves his point. In its own vulnerable way, it is as powerful as anything the Velvet Underground recorded.

4. Sweet Jane (1970)Sweet Jane started life as a ballad – see the versions recorded live at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1969 – but, sped and toughened up, it became as succinct and perfect a rock’n’roll song as has ever been written, based around one of the greatest riffs of all time.

3. Venus in Furs (1967)For a band who inspired so much other music, the Velvet Underground’s catalogue is remarkably rich with songs that still sound like nothing else; they were as inimitable as they were influential. Venus in Furs is a case in point: umpteen artists were galvanised by its dark, austere atmosphere; none succeeded in replicating it.

2. Sister Ray (1968)A monumental journey into hitherto-uncharted musical territory, where a primitive garage-rock riff meets Hubert Selby-inspired lyrics and improvisation that sounds like a psychological drama playing out between Reed and Cale, all at skull-splitting volume. Fifty-three years later, it is without peer for white-knuckle intensity.

1. All Tomorrow’s Parties (1967)Ninety per cent of the Velvet Underground’s oeuvre consists of no-further-questions classics. The astonishingly high standard of almost everything they did makes picking their “best” song a matter of personal preference, rather than qualitative judgment. So let’s go for Warhol’s favourite, on which the sour and sweet aspects of their debut album entwine faultlessly. The melody is exquisite; the music monolithic and unrelenting, powered by Cale’s hammering piano and Tucker’s stately drums; Nico’s performance perfectly inhabits the lyrics, which turn a depiction of a woman choosing what dress to wear into a meditation on emptiness and regret. It is original and utterly masterly: the Velvet Underground in a nutshell.

source

[downwithpeople]

Lionhead and Microsoft conflicted over the game's marketing: Microsoft believed that role-playing games were about dragons and wanted to market the game as such, despite Lionhead's insistence that the game was "a Monty Python-esque comedy". According to Fable art director John McCormack, the marketing was "shit" and that dragons were Dungeons & Dragons fare and had nothing to do with Fable.

john mccormack you just made the fucking list for making me take sides with both microsoft and dnd, what made you think your nerd 101 black adder schtick made you so superior to dnd. fable 1 ended with a boss fight against a fucking dragon

[ramblinganthropologist]

Writober 2020 - 16 (Sparks)

Summary: FTL fucking hurts. Maybe that’s why Bo put her fist through EDI’s port again.

---

It was a horrible day, and being in FTL jump only made it worse.

“Fuck, I don't care if it's psycho-whatever, this sucks.”

Bo's head was killing her from the pressure change... or whatever happened when the ship moved from regular go juice to the relays. She felt like it was stuck in a vice, and not much she was doing was helping it. All she could think of was retreating to her room and trying to be quiet about it.

It was at least dark there.

The elevator vibrated every part of her aching head as she rode the elevator from the CIC to the crew floor. When she got off, Thane started to say something... then he saw the look on her face and retreated back into Life Support. Smart lizard. She nodded anyway in the promise of seeing him later as she stumbled out and made a beeline for the door.

The food smell wasn't helping.

At least the door slid open as Bo stumbled in, heading in a beeline to her bed. There were reports waiting for her at the desk – she ignored them, much as she did the blinking light that told her she had messages. All she wanted was her pillow, and that's what she got as she collapsed face-first into the bed.

Fuck.

Laying down was a bad idea, though. Supposedly, the Normandy stabilized things when it was working properly. You weren't supposed to feel yourself rocketing through space at life-destroying speeds. Of course, that was a lie. With eyes closed and face in the mattress, it felt as though she was being dragged through glass at hyper-sonic speeds. Her stomach churned as she rolled over, groaning.

Great... add nausea to it.

“Shepard, your vitals indicate...”

Fuck, not that. Bo managed to crack an eye open to glare over at the spot by the door. In the cool darkness, the bright blue light was a spear directly to her brain. EDI sure knew how to decide when to make her life hell.

“Fuck off, EDI, nobody wants you here.”

The blue orb whirled as the ship processed her comment. Unfortunately, something in that Cerberus code didn't quite grasp 'fuck off' very well, because it didn't disappear. Bo swore it even got a little brighter as it spun around.

“As I was saying, your vitals indicate-”

Bo grit her teeth as she raised into a sitting position. Her lunch from the last two days threatened to eject as she crossed the room to meet the AI's projection. The light went dead as she smashed her fist down hard, sending off sparks as the console broke under the force. Then the room was blissfully dark again as she stared at it.

“My vitals indicate you need to shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”

Once she was sure EDI wasn't coming back, Bo made the arduous trek back to bed and her pillow. Her world was still spinning, but at least it was quiet. There was satisfaction in that as she returned to her previous position. Then she allowed herself to drift off in the hope a few hours of sleep would take the edge off of the headache.

---

The next time Bo had thoughts in her head, someone was knocking at the door.

“Fuck...”

Her head still hurt, but it was manageable. She managed to sit up without losing her breakfast as she glanced at the clock next to her bed. It had been a couple hours since her meeting with EDI. They were still in FTL drive.

She still felt like shit, but this was doable.

Bo managed to walk over to the door with slow, calculated steps. She stood to the side as she opened it, avoiding the flood of light that definitely would have put her back in bed. Whoever it was stepped in, mercifully closing the door behind them.

“EDI said you broke the port, so I'm here to check it out.”

Al's voice was low and soft. He had his toolbox in one hand and a bottle of pills in the other. Bo noticed the can of soda sticking out of his pants pocket, and there was a second one tucked in between his arm and side. Clearly, he had come bearing tribute.

Bo reached out her hand. “Pay up first.”

He smiled as he placed the pills and soda by her bedside table. What really caught her eye was the small bag of gummy bears he placed next to them. Then he backed away as he started towards the broken port, sparks still trailing from her destruction.

She was good at breaking shit. It was kind of her thing.

“Gelatin helps settle my stomach sometimes, maybe it'll work for you.” He was already unscrewing the broken housing on the port, and let out a low whistle once he had. “You uh... you really didn't want to talk to EDI, huh?”

“Do I ever?”

Bo was already starting to tear into the gummy bears, glad for it being a plastic bag instead of a crinkly container. Someone had been thinking with the galaxy brain in that one – easy access, and less noise. The first few went down, and they stayed there. That was as good a sign as any.

“No, but they told me you just smashed instead of insulting more than a few times. I figured you probably weren't feeling well when I read the summary.”

Al quietly worked at fixing the sparking system as Bo worked on the pill bottle and soda. Something about the carbonation helped her stomach too as she sat there, watching him work. He too was something to focus on, a bit of red and black in the darkness that switched out tools every so often.

“I hate FTL jumps.”

He nodded as he grabbed for his screwdriver to unscrew more of the housing that held EDI's port to the wall. Much to her amusement, she spotted the fabled vibrator tucked in with the rest of his tools. It was good to know he still had that – but she had never doubted it. He was a total nerd when it came to his tools.

“I do too. There's something unnatural about them.” He took a swig of his soda, pausing to massage his temple before going back to work. Bo watched with a blank expression. Where he touched was the same place she was feeling the ache. Right then it was thundering across her brain, racing down to her amp and back in two seconds flat. Even keeping her eyes open hurt.

And... he was fixing EDI's port.

She scowled as she chucked a gummy bear at his head – oww, motion hurt. “Can't that wait until your brain isn't tearing in two?”

It hit the back of his head and got lost in the hood of his jacket when it fell. Al turned to face her, smiling in that way that he always did when he was caught being back on his bullshit. Then he rubbed the back of his head – his other tell.

“I have a lot of work to do...”

Bo tossed another one at him, this one he dodged. “The fun of being commanding officer means you can load it off on somebody else. Get Chambers or someone else to do it and go to bed, you asshole.”

Al laughed at this, but they both winced at the sound. Now that his secret was out, he didn't even try to hide how he massaged his temple. No doubt his head was hurting as much as hers was, maybe even more because he kept trying to act like he was fine.

That was her CO, alright – a fucking idiot. This was why he died that one time.

“Maybe you're onto something. I'm pretty sure Tali could come fix this later for you.” He straightened up, returning his tools to the box with a slight click. “Or I could take it out... doesn't seem logical to keep EDI in here when you two don't get along. Would save on repair time for sure.”

Bo nodded – regret almost immediately as her head swam. “I vote removal.”

“I'll look into it when I'm conscious again.” His face paled as his stomach no doubt swam. “Definitely going to look into it when I'm conscious again...”

She pointed to the door as her head throbbed. “Go to bed, Al, and don't send more than two messages about it while you're going there.”

At least he didn't argue with her. Instead, Al crossed the room to take back the bottle of pills. Two disappeared down his throat as he took a few for a later dose, leaving her with the lion's share. Then he was closing the door behind him, leaving her back to her darkness.

Bo shook her head as she fell back face-first into her pillow. Honestly, she had no idea how Al was even standing still. Just sitting up had taken it out of her – and there he was trying to use tools. Talk about a masochist.

“Least I get to see Tali later...”

She stopped talking after that – it hurt. Everything hurt. She hated FTL jump space. And that was the last thought Bo had as she allowed herself to be taken by sleep for a second time. With any luck, they'd be out of it by the time she woke up and she'd be able to function again.

Bright side, no more EDI though. Maybe it wasn't all bad...

[leowyattv]

Steep Grade Fadeaway

Day is a Monday, lease On life’s right side of the low- Lying greens, order’d by law, Creases, offering a hand to hench- Men handy for odd-jobs re- Pression & phobia with wolf spider Ire stocking its stuffing, venom Plenum spokes from eight- legged gait, unipolar police Police who didst to citizen do South bayway sword maneuver —dune ballooning din—kill them :: moths from mothta spread— I’m a member of.— online soap seas cap’n gown loan shark says-he’s—sore lark admin the sole soul food restaurant— vessels contain company that’s it—company THE THING IS IS VANDAL SURE-FOOT’D SHOE YOU’LL DISAPPOINT ME —Dianne of diagnostics Prism blend’d light, you mean honestly ~ i ~, ere Administration's penchant for pens & Cagey humors, pent up & alloted limited stock On pinterest’s pinner plot Would extraction begin, even Helices interr, interject Baby Christ’s liverwurst extrusion, Redux of suede luxe ever does thine slow- f[x] fool on a lark's wing in folly err; But general, the nut sacks, please, topp'd Sweetener glaze (never for gays) Sweat frosting from ecclesiast's evac- Uation jizzum, eat- ery just a- Round the bend over good That IndyCar 500 cock. So: so-so soho block where— Erstwhile free- thinking myth- ology passes heavy limbs Creaking in wind [was thinking we’d] Flower fourteen curls Back & forth, Codify desert sublation, Cue gay porn infinity loop on eternity's Cloud backup-drop forever projected, For your children, Mike, your kids. & this — this (my) ((his)) cursive slick mercurium thick, pen flood in- flux counter-sunk & dumb- Bows, ties, sells quill at marketplace With expertise’s durable advisory, reed Screeching in its rubber friction drift, which quells not squad disruption, squall, Abuts up with a spade to fabled proprietary lines; Umpire enraptured, raptor Pack kinetics study anonymous groups, For scrimmage near miss Miss, the MRSA Merck's Near-fatal tithe. < h o w t i g h t b i r c h b a r k f l a k e s o f f t o g e t h e r ash :: coils :: winch :: draw- in-the-dark rhythms inn-like, quiet, keeping with Queen Mariah Carey's Kierkegaardian wish :: Of lactic acid & Jehoshaphat Edicts, alliances spat at by Jehu So cordage tension its elastics tests :: Hell moans red Waves a porcupine pelt let through Spires sharp with bone, in- Scriptions of pass’d down teaching King-toppling :: hull groan gore, little system submarine ultrasonics, Realty a reality drive, divisions Splints tack’d on ulterior Versions, separation goods Another marketplace subsumption, a- Ah ah, Monarch’s ampersand Armory & orphanage growth paradigm. Mama, in the maw Of a monster it appears When spat to mangrove’s entanglements In whose rootless cloak Womb-like repair’d did I float On Tidal pressure’s pat turns Of wave phrase & coastal sound. Grammy’s telegram Faroff drawing graph’d out In double bass clef, whitebread from the top of Wonderbread ridge, Omi? [[[ hives, hexagon life-rafts Ashkanazi Jews descendents in whose Nameless lineage bow’d heads lean past stalk & branch ]]] Holocaust a hologram to fool’s corner; Survived, devised lives, could I Then, they this disbelief hold After the fact hush, scattering creed, Belief like layers of sound same Overlaid, distortion via copying; this Terrain vague makes us Hungry for disbelief & away,— Shame at sensation’s predicate, we’re not we’re not were not them—then. Characters glynne & surrowe, iyse foes may say will not into world will For will’s sake. Gardner rescinds Offer for cylinder Heads, standing wave pressurized In tubular body, met with lip Aperture shifts & valve Select valve depressions trumpet Walls down, & Solomon’s temple’s walls Shake each brick laid If coded into video- game; mechanics of Megafauna’s jaws dent don’t puncture, dental spread of broom’s Bristles or concrete finishing screed. The lady grabs the keys & allows generations a soul’s Movement to buoy faith :: Clay takes on new shapes for Good, naked bracing Against surface, thrust short Rink’s fire firefly-stud’d, freight’d glows The fright force against density Darkness offers, suspension Cradle, safe durational rock shock’d By freight trains penetrative Expansion, gaseous fits in confines small; Cobbler’s shop a shack, canister Tremolo goes to tumble-wash, Eviction of nuns at Juniper Monastery, things object through Inaction, plants guard fruit from gulls’ gullets, Gourd raft or instrument & species disembark :: Parnassus lamb on spits, spurn Wager’d against poignant Stellation of spur’s star’d points, stud’d. It is rather lonely. Welter Weights waste excess swells In waist’s weight-gain, Spotted once then trimmed, deemed High hinderance if loot’s to be tuned up, then taken; Blood from thin laceration Above the right eye releases threads Of blood; hand held, yes Triads, amps per kilojoule of One grain of sand, which Between toes react, duststorm Shakes clapboards & window-garments, The fornification of conceivable indivisible parts :: Things poole gryn, Graham to you This, saturate, this saturnalia. Wherever sea rummages earth’s crust Sage’s city wisdom, said to overturn off- Compass underpass or Souls inhabitance Herenow splatoon ever in unum Pluribus, A well. If it gets to, it’s off in bramble patch again; Cavernous sediment down- Loads by way of remaining in stasis, Adaptation & change proceed With gradients of such nuance one is Sure as one can be Organisms are a constancy unmoved. English ivy, spry & welcoming Enough to juncos & finch-song, Strangles any individual offering A vertical support, a tall host, From whose apex, were One to climb douglas fir In that Spanaway house’s lot, one would note Yellow blazes from Scotch broom, an infantry Under which camas flower & prairie grass Die off; ecologists hear & provisions provide public. Nova scorch Canopy, What’s happened to it all Primates of later eon ask? Sand shook; mud slid, loosed from Roots once anchoring mass, Hook enters the base Of the bait, loop line Doubles & knots, casting out guesswork When fisheries bring ghostnets to Foreground & shore. Rasas. & family still Standing :: Burgess brothers Twin lute & nylon-string, Summerfield Tectosilicate feldspar recovers & with Katy & makes musical games to train good weapons, voice leading & harmony Accompaniment, just.— It promised. no ~ i ~, quotient, quarrel Quest-kill objective, quarantine, Can inquiry proceed experimental Without explorational? INgenuine (this venue, come now) To even ask, but to Figure this out buy redrawing What was that, Those shapes making layers first, Maybe dimensions, second? Sinkholes clog eventually. Can yonder’s crayon-wax Out rear windshield Make out landscape’s Attendees & absentees alike? The tipoff bid for children’s hospital Sutures lawmaker to industry Profit-centers, pediatric morbidity rallies, Shipping vessels on glass beds spit Beads of bleach, sleet freeze Hardening to barnacles, sharkfin decor, Trim efficiencies, sin, sign, nature, what Remains in speech decoder’s translation? Mama’s got through villanelle Format, perforated loss, refrains Rebounding sound given shape By lack surrounding it, cradling it, even. Shedding it, scalar skin or bark; Magnitude without direction; A temper vestibule in- Vests, jackets a body in Truncated coat, technics fold, inter- Ruptions :: hundreds die as baseline Nuclear arsenal refill Fun, a planting pot fresh with Manure, fertilizer funds, & dirt With paradox, halving lives A speculative endurance, Populating a futurity with Untraceable elegance, Like mycological spore, or mycelial Masses; like cryptocurrency Exchanges in blockchain Relationship & exchange verifiable With uncompromising math With extraneous dialogue In the wind; like let them be naked Physicists sporting labcoats Only, as a group Sure of dark matter’s Not being there, its criminality A subversion, defying Paradigm parameters, & the glottal Stop at this epistemological Dissolution, erotic even, A flush heating bodies up At the limits, the proximity Of other bodies, the desire For physical embrace & exchange enough, nearly, To assume such kingmaker species a half-life well off Into future, plutonium megawatt power-station Giving life to groups finding Each other, once again, beneath Night’s luminous bodies, Beneath moon’s thievery, Held by shadows, deep black density In whose unmappable infinitude a species Approaches a release from print, rose Compass, gold arrow, landscape & waterway Florescent with spectra of blue & volcanic reds, shorn from it, then, Held in what is after all, unnamable, Of near-absolute incompatibility With kingmaker species & yet, That which gave any of it The possibility of accidental beginning.

[six-string-survivors]

Hey there, SixStringSurvivors. I think I was fourteen when I heard Sloan’s ‘500 Up’ for the first time. I’ve been listening, off and on, ever since. Their 1994 album ‘Twice Removed’ and 1996′s ‘One Chord to Another’ are permanent fixtures in my CD player. (Yes, I still have a CD Player, and it gets regular use. Shut it.) 

This guitar (which I’ll call the “Kiss” guitar, for obvious reasons) has fascinated me for years. There is a lot that’s unique about it. I think I first caught sight of it in Sloan’s music video for ‘Coax Me,’ and it was a live staple for many years (only replaced since maybe 2012 by a white Gibson SG Custom, three-pickup model.) Most often seen in the hands of Sloan songsmith / guitarist Patrick Pentland, after a bit of emailing and contacting Sloan members via social media, Pentland’s bandmate Jay Ferguson wrote back “Hey! It belongs to Chris... he got it many years ago. I believe it’s from early 60s and it’s called a Les Paul Jr. - hope that helps!”

The Chris mentioned is Sloan bassist Chris Murphy, most often seen wielding a 70′s Fender Mustang Competition bass, though it bears mentioning that all four members of Sloan are multi-instrumentalists, and it’s not uncommon for them to swap instruments mid-set. 

The Les Paul Jr., if Jay is indeed correct, narrows down the age of the instrument a little, though there are several oddities worth noting. Jazz guitarist Les Paul did not like the new “Solid Guitar” shape of the redesigned Les Paul Model, which debuted in 1961, and removed his name from it by late 1963. The guitar was then known simply as the Gibson Solid Guitar, or SG. Those SG’s that left the factory with Les’ name on the headstock, such as this one, date from the first two years of production. 

The Les Paul / SG Junior was the logical follow up to the late-50′s single-cut and double-cutaway Les Paul Junior model, which more closely resembled the fabled late-50′s Les Paul goldtops and standards, except without the figured, carved maple tops. Junior models left the factory with a single pickup, and simplified controls of single volume, and single tone. 

Thing is, no early 60′s Les Paul / SG Junior ever left the factory in Kalamazoo with a humbucker, as the Kiss guitar has. Likewise, no ‘stock’ SG ever had a pickguard shaped like the Kiss guitar (though I wish they did! I think it’s a very handsome shape.) The picture from the collage in the bottom left corner is a screen-cap from Sloan’s “The Good in Everyone” video (attached) which is not only a great, rockin’ tune, but there are some great close-ups of the Kiss guitar. 

As you can see, the pickguard has changed over the years, from a battle-scarred black, so worn that it makes me wonder if the pickguard was actually a black-painted piece of white plastic, to what looks to be clear. It’s unclear if there were two pickguards, or if the paint (?) was just removed completely. 

The bridge has changed over the years, too. In the Bottom-left picture (c. 1996) it sports a Wilkinson. or pigtail-style wraparound bridge, whereas in the main picture (c. 2002-3) the bridge appears to be a vintage or reproduction Gibson ‘Lightning Bolt’ as would have come from the factory. It seems the knobs have also been replaced (likely many times, which is common for a guitar that’s seen so much road use.) It would originally have left the Gibson factory with top-hat style knobs with inserts, as in the bottom left photo (though the all-black top-hat style it currently wears became more common from the factory by 1963.) 

Patrick most often plays this guitar pretty dirty, with a pretty thick, overdriven tone vs. Jay’s often cleaner lines. I wish I knew more about which songs it was commonly used on, and from which era of live Sloan performance. But there are plenty of live shows on YouTube from the 90′s to the present that show a wide variety of live setups. What I can say with a level of certainty is that Patrick’s tone seems to come mostly from amp and pedal tone, since there are many live performances where he can play the same song, but use a Fender Telecaster, a Gretsch Duo-Jet, a Hagstrom, or the SG. Those guitars are so varied, the tone has to be in the pedals, amp, and in the fingers. 

In researching this post, I found that the “Kiss” guitar disappears from live performance after about 2012, in favour of a white SG Custom with gold hardware. It’s possible the frets are worn out after 20 years of hard work on the road with Sloan, and 30+ years of existence before that, or it’s possible Patrick merely had a change of taste. 

It’s too bad -- she’s a real looker. 

https://youtu.be/Qffy6uHkcTU

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Checkin’ Out”

Written by: Jake Goldman, Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Benjamin P. Carow, Caitlin Vanarsdale

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

A special night time version of Fly Pow Bye this week! Thankfully, this store is open 24/7.

Our episode begins with Townsville under attack by a nameless alien invasion, as led by an evil alien that bears a striking resemblance to Vilgax from Ben 10. First Logan from Never Been Blissed, and now this. Wonder when Dollar General Gwen will show up. He has come to destroy this world unless they give him something he really wants: a nice dinner.

Earth has a ton of great chefs that can easily fulfill that request for that nice dinner, and they probably would accept. I'm sure there's at least one guy on the planet that will drive him in his yellow Chevy in his quest to go to the fabled "Flavortown." However, Dollar Store Vilgax seemingly only wants meals from people that look like bug-eyed aliens, and the Reboot Puffs take it upon themselves to satisfy his hunger. This sounds like a start of a commercial for Powerpuff Girls Macaroni and Cheese.

Wow, that mac and cheese has really gone bad! No, this is actually a dish called Plat de Fantise de Gelee de Cereales. In English, a fancy jelly cereal dish, and that's assuming they meant to say "fantaisie." I should not knock them on their French, because I'll admit that I used Google Translate for that. This is what Blossom decides this alien would really like, mostly because the site said it was "out of this world". Certainly doesn't look like anything of this world, so it's probably fitting!

Bubbles looks at this dish and says that this dish is so fancy, that they have to go to the fanciest supermarket in town...

...Savings Pig! See, the joke is that this store doesn't seem like a delicatessen, and the "savings" implies that it's a discount store. That seems to be a running theme in the reboot; they went to discount superhero clothing stores on quite a few occasions. I would have preferred Malph's, but I guess it wouldn't be as funny if that was said by a redneck impression.

They manage to get all but two of the ingredients...at least, that's what Blossom claims. Did the recipe really call for an unwrapped chicken drumstick and a sausage? Also, even if this is the Savings Pig, how can the Reboot Puffs afford all of what's in that cart on a 6-year-old's allowance? It might be hard to convince the cashier that the fate of the world should be payment enough. Chances are, we may not even get that far.

Blossom tasks Bubbles and Buttercup for cereal and jelly, deciding to get the two items that the dish is named after last. The dish's name is in French, but they do have someone who can speak French on the team, along with every other language. This episode...kind of uses that later in the episode? Bubbles asks what kind of cereal, and Blossom says that the recipe doesn't say. I would think that would be important, but I guess they couldn't spin a plot like this on us if it was specific:

Blossom: I don't want to sound over-dramatic, but the fate of the world rests on what cereal you pick.

(dramatic thump)

Yeah, Bubbles, calm down, it's only the end of the world.

Buttercup is tasked to find the jelly. The recipe isn't clear on this one, either, but I could see Buttercup just assuming what flavor it is. She is an uncaring rascal, after all. Moving past the jelly sauce and the jelly mayo, she finds that the regular, plain jelly has been moved. Buttercup scoffs at this sabotage against the world, which may be a little more literal considering the world is in peril, and she's on the case!

Literally, as the scene goes into this black-and-white film-noir-esque comic style, as Detective Buttercup, PI starts to investigate the disappearance of this rare ordinary jelly.

If you haven't guessed yet, this is a three shorts episode, where each Powerpuff Girl gets their own story that combines their supermarket sweep and their imagination. I must say, this visual choice for Buttercup is a highlight of the episode, and it is really disappointing that Buttercup's part in this is the only part that really does this. It would have been interesting to see this reboot's version of The Bare Facts. They do borrow one thing from that episode, and really don't do it as well.

We suddenly cut to Bubbles trying to decide which cereal would be the best to add to this dish. There's Rainbow Raspberries, Marshmallow Majorettes, Count Von Sugar, and Leprechaun Lingonuts. It's made by leprechauns, for leprechauns, as proven by an actual leprechaun that happened to be shopping. By that name, I hope it's not made with leprechauns. Unfortunately, none of these cereals jump out to Bubbles as something that would appeal to aliens! If only Quisp still existed!

It's not that they don't jump out, period, as, suddenly, the mascots for all of those cereals hop out of the boxes, ready to advertise themselves to this impressionable youth. Surprisingly, Bubbles doesn't start screaming and flying out of the store in horror like that one Sprite ad. Instead, she starts a dance party with them!

Thankfully before Bubbles gets to twerk again, we immediately cut to Blossom getting in line, knowing fully well that Bubbles and Buttercup can find jelly and cereal in time. Thankfully, she never heard about the Bubbles getting the mail situation, and it's probably for the best that nobody does. She uses the express line, with a rule against having more than 115 items.

However, she notices the line is taking too long, and notices the elderly woman in front of the line has 116 items in her cart, one more than the limit. Shocked at this crime, she goes up to a clerk and demands that she takes her away, and she gets ignored. But how, this misdemeanor might cost Blossom a whole 3 seconds of the poor cashier scanning that one extra item before she can save the world!

Suddenly, Blossom gets into an imagination spot of her own, where this old lady is the Witch of 116 Items, sitting on a pile of them on top of the only bridge to town, preventing everyone from going home! She imagines herself as Lady Blossom of the Savings Pig, giving a little more meaning to the store's name by making Blossom look even more ridiculous.

That's all we get out of that plot before they cut back to the Buttercup plot, where she terrorizes a hapless clerk who was just stocking some Soup Soap. She demands to know where the jelly went, or she'll give him a jawbreaker! This is a set up for a joke about the candy, but it feels a little forced. If someone is holding me against a wall, threatening me with something called a jawbreaker, that candy would be the last thing I'd think about.

He obliges when offered said jawbreaker for that info, saying it's in Aisle 64, and Buttercup just leaves. The clerk then demands his jawbreaker, and Buttercup, ever so thankful of this clerk who gave her all the information she needed, throws it at him with enough force to actually break his jaws. Oh, that rascal!

We don't get to see what happened to that clerk as this transitions to...the Blossom plot? In the span of 3 minutes, they changed the focus 5 times, and they couldn't even be bothered to take turns. This episode just rapidly changes between these three plots randomly, as if a baby just decided to start teething on a remote control. We get one joke, and then the scene changes, and then another joke, and then the scene changes, rarely can the plot actually breathe. It gets kind of annoying.

A partial thing that might be causing more harm to this kind of editing, also seen in episodes like Splitsville, is that Blossom's part is lackluster by comparison. Bubbles and Buttercup get pretty relatable situations, letting their imaginations fly with being indecisive and finding relocated items. Blossom, on the other hand, is getting angry over something most people would just brush off. Seems to be a general problem with Blossom, actually.

Anyway, she gets pelted by witchcraft-propelled groceries. That's all we get from this cut; it might as well have been tacked on to the earlier scene.

We smash cut to Bubbles, even if there was a very good opportunity to use those groceries as a transition, who is now in a cereal wonderland. This land is filled with cereal, their mascots, and some pretty shameless copyright infringement! Along with the other characters that are certainly on the side of parody, we have what is clearly Toucan Sam and Tony the Tiger just dancing along. Tony does look a little bit different with his yellow shirt, but that's clearly just Toucan Sam. They didn't even try to make him look different; he even has the same nose colors.

There's a possibility that they owed Kellogg's some product placement for making that Powerpuff Girls cereal from decades ago. I doubt it.

Everyone, except for Tony and Toucan Sam, the latter of which only appearing in that one shot, asks Bubbles to choose them, even telling her to take them all if she can't decide on one. Just like the Buttercup plot, this is relatable, though in a different way. Anyone had those times where they couldn't decide between one thing or another, even something as minor as cereal choice, and this is a decent metaphor for that mental state.

But we don't have time to think about that, because we already switched to the Buttercup plot. Buttercup manages to find Aisle 64, represented in her imagination as this secret warehouse with a little peephole. It's a nice touch. Eventually, the perpetrator of the jelly scandal smacks her with the door, and runs off with the last jelly jar in the store. Buttercup chases after him, and we get another smash cut to Bubbles.

The episode switching the channel yet again, we see that Bubbles finally decided on giving the aliens some Cherry Chimpanzees with their jelly. The other mascots don't take it too well. Again, a good sight into this kind of mental state; no matter which option you choose, you always get the feeling that the other choices were better. By the way:

Leprechaun Lingonuts mascot: When we're done with her, she'll be seeing stars...and rainbows, and...

That joke was funny. Maybe it's funny compared to the "it's not even made of real chimpanzees" joke that Not Count Chocula says, but still. Both FoodFight and this episode have obvious Count Chocula clones; I guess it's far less risky to skirt that copyright when he's already a parody.

Meanwhile, Blossom is cutting up all of those groceries, ending with Blossom making a cheese board, a fruit bowl, and a ham sandwich. The joke is...she's cutting up food? After effortlessly slicing and dicing like a Slap Chop, the Witch says this completely original line:

Witch of 116 Items: You fared well against the appetizers...but how will you do against the main course?!

Yeah, you're no Broccoloid, lady.

After a sword slice transition, something this episode needed more of, we see that Buttercup catches up to the jelly-thieving crook. She decides to reveal who he really is: Big Peanut Butter! Sort of like Big Tobacco and Big Pharma, Big Peanut Butter was in a conspiracy to make him more desirable for the recipe. He snaps his fingers, and his goons show up, ready to take her on, crunchy-style. Buttercup, undeterred, says this one liner:

Buttercup: I always know how to get out of a jam!

I'll give them this: it's better than "let's strawberry jam out of here."

Unlike Bubbles, who runs away at the sight, Buttercup isn't afraid to punch out all of the goons in a slideshow beatdown. And then Buttercup realizes she's now surrounded by four heavily bruised customers, plus a poor clerk with a broken jaw. Okay, that actually didn't happen...as far as this episode is concerned, anyway.

She asks the monkey what she can do about this. Gasp, Bubbles talking to animals that can't talk back?! One minor bit of disappointment is that she just talks to it in English just like Lassie. All the pieces were set for another animal impression; it's an animal, Bubbles can supposedly still talk to animals, and, even though he's a cereal mascot, that monkey can't even talk!

This monkey's plan is to melting them all with milk. Can't say it's not a fitting end for this part, though she should thank the shooting stars and four leaf clovers that Captain Roofofyourmouthkiller wasn't one of the options.

We quickly go through everyone else's ending in the same haphazard way the rest of the episode goes through, which fits a lot better since this is what leads to the conclusion. Buttercup, even with her ability to fly super fast, even keeping her green contrail that doesn't make sense with the part's style, she couldn't stop the Jelly from crashing into the ground.

As for Blossom, the Witch just ends up running out of items. Seeing an opportunity to attack, she takes out some baguettes and starts to slideshow beat down her into submission with them. Why baguettes?

Because that's what she was holding outside of their imagination. Okay, I slightly lied about lying about Buttercup, though we never get to see who or what she beat up outside of her imagination. The Reboot Puffs get banned from the Savings Pig, leaving them with no other option but to serve the aliens a casserole made of whatever they had in the cupboard. To make this long story short, they get away with it. They even say they got away with it.

Buttercup: Uh, did we just get away with this?

Blossom: Yup.

Yeah, in your universe, maybe. Oh, and thanks for forgetting the lesson you learned in Imagine That, girls. That is how the episode ends. Once again, the day isn't saved thanks to the Powerpuff Girls. They just get away with it, don't they?

Does the title fit?

Perfectly describes one of the plots in this episode, at least.

How does it stack up?

While the way I ended this review made it seem like I was going to give this a Disgusted, I couldn't really give it one in the end. I can't really knock this episode's creativity. The Buttercup part is a good send-up of the usual film noir tropes, the Bubbles part has a few decent jokes, and the Blossom part participated.

In the end, it's not okay enough for a Happy, nor is it offensive enough for a Disgusted. In the immortal words of Fake Tony the Tiger, this episode is grrrr-medio-grrrr.

Next, this show lays another bomb.

← Brainlord ☆ Drama Bomb →

[emilyccannings]

Illumicrate Pin Club October 2019

Illumicrate Pin Club October 2019 What pin will it be?

Now I love most things Harry Potter depending on the design and subject of course. This month’s Illumicrate Fable and Black Pin is a beautiful replica of the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw.

This particular pin is quite simple design which I will admit makes me a little sad. I was hoping for more sparkle. However, the shape and size of the pin is perfect and that for me will sometimes make or break my…

[captainderyn]

Cipher Five (A Real Introduction)

Because I never formally introduced him, and I’m having fun with this character sheet. 

Again, it was done by @therron-shan​, gotta give credit where credit is due :D

(**Old drawing, think no scar..)

Preliminary Info:

Name: Valetyn Slovoko

Nicknames: Val, Vicky, Five

Alias(es): Cipher Five, Viktor Aulis (most used cover name, he introduced himself this way to people after he’s out of Intelligence as he doesn’t like giving his “real” name. 

Age: 32

Born: 19  BTC? Maybe? Years work how?

Gender: Male

Species: Human

Affiliations:

Empire, Imperial Intelligence

Occupation:

Imperial Intelligence Agent--Cipher division, instructor at the Imperial Intelligence Academy (unwillingly at first) when he was on leave, mostly full time once he leaves Intelligence. 

Physical:

General Description:

"Five...first time I met him I thought he was an ass, but intimidating. He practically had the agents in my training class falling at his feet, he’s got that whole ‘tall, dark’ thing going for him. I just wanted to fight the fabled Cipher Five. But he’s intimidating, cold and distant like he could kill you with his eyes only until you see him out of uniform *glares off camera* no not like that. When you see him outside of being an agent you get a softer person. Not different, not entirely, but like the harsh edges are softened...” --Erabelle Torven “Cipher Nine”

Height: 6′0

Weight: Somewhere in the 170lbs range

Hair: Dark dark brown, probably slicked back out of his face if he’s working, his wife would rather it be ruffled because then cowlicks start to form and she finds them adorable. 

Eyes: Hazel eyes, leaning more on the brown end than green.

Skin/Fur: His skin has a naturally more tan tone, despite being stuck on Dromund Kaas most of his life. 

Scars/Birthmarks/Etc.: He has a line of double scars going down his spine from between his shoulder blades all the way down his back with some larger scars crisscrossing over those from the accident that ended his agent days. 

Tattoos/Markings: ---

Cybernetics: He has cybernetic implants along his spine after an accident in the field that caused severe injuries to his spine. Those cybernetics allow him to walk and function pretty normally, though they aren’t a solve all and he still suffers some on and off pain from the injury.

Handedness:

He’s left handed 

Style:

Intelligence: In the field his favored uniform is black/very dark grey (unlike SOME agents, he says, glaring at Era, preening in her white/light grey uniform). He wears gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints everywhere in the field, and his uniform is lightly armored. The less bulky the better. 

Civilian: He dresses classy, he dresses nice okay. I blame him growing up in Kaas City, where everything is high fashion. It’s easier for me to just post a picture than explaining: 

Other:

He has a thick Imperial, Kaasian accent that comes through when he’s tired or very amped up/angry/whatever. His voice is very nice to listen to, it’s relatively deep and just has a soothing cadence to it. Unless he’s angry and then its sharp as a dagger and you better get ready to dodge. 

Mental/Emotional:

Background/Backstory:

Five grew up under two military bred parents, his father from the Imperial Army, his mother from the Imperial Navy, in Kaas City. He led a pretty easy life and excelled in his schooling, finding a passion in history. He knew he wanted to go military-esc to serve the Empire, but when applying to a program initially for the Imperial Navy he was directed towards Imperial Intelligence as a best fit instead. He worked as an agent for ten years before being forced to retire.

Personality: Five is very logical, very analytical, and horrible with numbers. He’s highly intelligent and can read people quite well, something that has allowed him to do well in his field as opposed to somewhere like a Fixer or a Minder. Five has a passion for history and the habit of being able to remember random facts that he can pull at a single trigger. When he’s nervous he’ll start talking if it’s someone he’s comfortable with--like when he was going to propose to his now wife, he started talking about the art history of the resturant they were at. 

Due to his time in Intelligence he’s developed quite a suspicion of people and is very much someone you can get the wrong first impression of. You need to work to get him to trust you and open up to you, otherwise he just comes across as a very quiet, rather rude and cold asshole. However, when you do unlock the actual man behind the agent mask he’s quite nice to be around, if you can handle the highly intelligent sort that always have a habit of guessing the twist on a holonet show before it actually happens. 

Quirks: He doesn’t sleep much during his agent days and even after, he refuses to give his birth name to anyone but his wife--as she’s the one who realy gave it meaning again, he almost never will have his back to a door and will flinch if you surprise him from behind--ie, hand on his shoulder. 

Disorders: Most likely some manner of PTSD after all he’s been through and seen, haven’t thought enough on it to expand comfortably. 

Addictions:

Not a full blown addiction but for awhile he had a heavy reliance/quasi addiction to adrenaline stims so that he didn’t need to sleep and face what he’d see in his dreams. Eventually it becomes easier to be awake than it is to sleep. 

Strengths:

He sees the Empire as what it could be, not venerating it for what it is, he’s quite methodical and careful in his work, he’s good at what he does. 

Weaknesses:

He’s got a fricken attitude towards his superiors, but it’s all veiled jabs and insults, his old injury means he could seriously fuck himself up if not careful, he got too attached to his small gaggle of agent ducklings. 

Likes: Helping his fellow ciphers, the idea of a better Empire, people who aren’t blind to the Empire’s flaws. 

Dislikes: Sith, whoever in Intelligence thought it was a good idea to keyword Ciphers, people who are blind to the Empire’s flaws, ect. 

Phobias/Fears: Losing control of his mind/body, hurting his wife or anyone close to him, his own mind in some sense, a suppressed one is losing his ability to walk. 

Hobbies: Reading military texts and strategy books, good natured debating, learning all the history things he can, patting his cat.  

Interests: History--both general and military, other cultures. 

Favorite movies: He sleeps through more movies than he watches. Things that are either fairly lighthearted or related to historical events/retellings. His daughters have warmed him up to Space!Disney animated movies though he’ll roll his eyes at their cheesy messages. 

Favorite music: Again, not much a music listener. If he had to choose it’d be of the classical type, or at least instrumental. Music soundtracks, orchestral movements, ect. 

Favorite books: Shoot I already covered this (*smacks self* overzealous!). Hm, military histories, some historical fiction, some fantasy, though he’s picky. 

Favorite TV shows: Whatever his wife will watch with him. Also things that make him think, with twists and stories and characters that are interesting.

Skills/Talents:

Habits: Being hyperaware of his surroundings, always checking the people around him, always being on high alert outside of the safety of his home. 

Morality/Ethics:

I have these goals I need to meet and I follow my own morale code, if you cross the line of what I deem is right and you don’t have a valid reason for it then I have no problem doing what I have to do to you. There are things I need to do in my line of work that I am not okay with, such as needless killing, and if I can’t avoid it then I am deeply sorry.

Don’t hurt people who don’t need to be hurt, don’t make people needlessly suffer. Always be honest to what you do and accept the mistakes you make. Faction doesn’t justify wrong things that you do. 

Goals:

Short Term: Survive raising two twin girls who are very energetic and enthusiastic about life, see that Daughter #1 (see family) makes it out of her own career alive and well and that she’s happy, build a normal life and adjust to a normal life with his family. Finish his own recovery from his injury/linger effects from Intelligence years and be there for said family.

Long Term: Survive raising two twin girls. That doesn’t go away. Reconnect with his own family on a better level, be happy.  

Motivations:

His own drive for a long time, his passion for the Empire he knows can be born, then it shifts and its his wife, then his family as a whole. 

Other:

He’s an introvert by nature and isn’t the most outgoing of people, he’s honestly rather reserved. But among a select few people he will open up a bit to show his sense of humor and be a little less quiet. 

Relationships:

Sexual/Romantic Orientation: Bi/demi

Relationship History: Not good. He’s been in a few relationships and until his wife they’ve always crashed and burned as the people he was with couldn’t handle the intensity of his career and how he would be traveling more often than not. 

Reputation: He doesn’t have a reputation relationship wise. As far as anyone in Intelligence knows he’s single and has been single. He’s usually known to be successful in missions where seduction is a key element, does that count? Gossip in the Academy when they learn about Cipher Five is that he’s hot??

Family:

Vitaliya Slovoko: Five’s younger sister. Four years his junior, a major in the Imperial Army by the time they reunite. She’s just as intelligent as he is but finds it best put to use in the context of strategic analysis in the Army. She’s run several successful operations in her time. The last time Five had direct contact with her before resuming it was when he was nineteen just before he became a Cipher Agent. He was close with her growing up, very much a protective older brother Now their relationship is rather cordial until they finally break through the ice and then they’re close af again. Tries to see some of her old brother shining through and sometimes presses a bit too much for it. 

Anton Slovoko: Five’s father, retired from the Imperial Army where he was highly successful in support and leadership positions instead of combat positions. Regrets ever allowing his son to go into Imperial Intelligence, worries about Five even after they’ve reunited. He and Five have always had a pretty good relationship, he was the fastest to warm up to Five (Five as a person, not Valetyn, the son that left for the Academy) as he is when he returns. Probably the one that understands and respects Five’s nature the best and is the only one who just nods and accepts his request to not go by Valetyn (He goes by Viktor to everyone outside of his wife and to an extent Era).

Stasya Slovoko (nee Roksana): Five’s mother, ex Imperial Navy where she was a successful combatant/pilot. Thought for the longest time after Five cut off contact (rather unintentionally, he was stripped of most memories of familial ties upon his entrance into Intelligence) that her only son was dead. Hasn’t quite forgiven him or Intelligence for making him/self disappear, hasn’t entirely warmed back up to him. Part of her expects and wants her pre-Intelligence son back, the one who didn’t hold his blood family at an arms length, the one who wasn’t a little bent and broken whenever she looks at him. However she and Five are working on it, they’ve always had a slight tendency to knock heads after all, but they’re trying to work through it for her granddaughters/his daughters’ sake. 

Erin and Claire Slovoko: Five and Thea (his wife)’s daughters, twins and too intelligent for their own good. The mirialan in their blood shows through more than the human, which sometimes doesn’t work in their favor in the Empire. They wrangle their father into princess parties and beg Auntie Era to paint his face into funny creatures. He let’s them, he loved his daughters more than anything and would do anything to protect them. 

Erabelle Torven: Yup, she gets lumped in with family. Because she’s technically Daughter #1. Because Five took her under his wing when she was a wee little field agent first coming into the Cipher program and well, oops, now he’s stuck with her. Thea jokes that Era is their first child and she’s honestly a part of the family without question. She and Five are extremely close and have a lot more of a father-daughter relationship than say, a sibling-like bond or something. 

Agent: He and Thea have a loth cat that they found as a kitten on the streets of Kaas that was jokingly called Agent until he started to respond to it and well..not the cat’s name is Agent. He’s like a big maine coon mixed with a loth cat and is a smug, cuddly bastard. He and Five get are best friends and Five loves his cat dearly. When Five came home injured, almost two weeks after he was supposed to come home the cat sat on his bed and belittled him in meows as cats tend to do for ten standard minutes. 

Friends:

Noa: ...who belongs to @delavairesslegacy, obv, basically gets lumped into family as well considering she’s Era’s girlfriend and Five and Thea love her too. But they’re also friends, so to speak. They get along, he’s about as friendly as he can get. They meet officially through Era, but he nows her through Intelligence as Fixer Twenty-Four. He’s probably worked on a mission with her once or twice. 

Most of the agents in the Cipher program: I headcanon them to be a fairly small, tightly knit group and he’s grown pretty close to the ones that have been around consistently. Of course, he’s been in the cipher program for close to 10 years, compared to the 5 that most get before they’re killed or disappear and with the ever revolving nature of the cipher program a lot of the agents by the time he retires are young. And since he’s usually tossed into teaching training classes at the Academy he’s had a hand in most of their training. So he’s like the mother duck of the cipher agents, hence the gaggle of agents mention. They’re all pretty close and support each other. The agent puppy pile is a thing, and when Five is being tested after his injury to assess that he really can’t serve the ones that are home at the time are there to support him and are sad (but also glad) that he’s released out of Intelligence. 

Enemies:

There are too many to name, and none that have names that stand out to me rn. 

Love Interest:

He’s married to @delavairesslegacy‘s Thea Xern. They met when they were both working (she’s an ex SIS agent), and she was interfering with his assassination mission. They infuriated each other, getting in the way of each other’s missions and such. TBH he antagonized her a bit, played games with the SIS agent. He got in trouble for a) letting her see his face by accident and b) doing an unsanctioned search for information on her (where he found mundane jobs listed that he called bullshit on) and was sent to a non combat posting to tie up loose ends and eliminate her, as a loose end. They met, she surrendered and said he could kill her as long as he helped her tie up her own loose ends. Being stuck on a ship for x amount of time later he couldn’t bring himself to kill her and offered to help her start a new life with a new name, no ties to the Republic, on a neutral world. No strings attached. She accepted and from time to time he would check on her, make sure that his connections were sound in what they’d provide for her. And from there they grew closer until they became involved, and eventually she moved to Dromund Kaas to live with him. Which means he may or may not have committed treason in bringing an ex SIS agent into the heart of the Empire. Oops. 

Affiliations:

Imperial Agent:

Rank:

Cipher Agent

Known Aliases: Viktor Aulis, Daniil Antonov, Emil Nichevo

Weapons/Specs:

He’s well versed in both stealth/knife fighting like Era prefers, but his strength and preference has always been sniping. He prefers to shoot with a rifle. 

Methods of getting information:

Five prefers to go for seduction and befriending rather than torture. He finds torture unnecessary and gruesome. If it comes down to it his veiled, elegant threats will put a blade to your throat but no torture. 

Thoughts on the Republic:

He is loyal to the Empire, serves Intelligence to a point unless it conflicts with his own beliefs, but does not hate the Republic. He thinks they do some things wrong and that their supposed morale high ground isn’t as true as they’d like to convince themselves it is but being married to an ex Republic citizen has given him a new perspective, even if she’s not really a Republic patriot anymore. 

Other Info:

He’s gone undercover on many occasions but has a general distaste for deep undercover missions. Especially deep undercover missions in the Republic, he thinks they’re tedious and often don’t gain the information they hope. That being said, he’s best suited for solo or pair missions (he and Era are a popular partnership) that involve being undercover to an extent or getting in and out without fuss. He does not enjoy desk work, he gets restless and much prefers to be out in the field. 

Other Biographical Info:

Birthworld: Dromund Kaas

Homeworld: ...Dromund Kaas

Where is/are their stronghold(s) located?  Where do they consider home?

His home is a modest now family sized apartment (they probably had to move once they realized they’d have two girls)  on Dromund Kaas that’s filled with personality and life compared to his old apartment when it was just him, where it was furnished with the basic necessities and was only used as a brief check in point. 

Familial Background:

He comes from a military family, and a successful one at that. He’s the first one in a few generations to go into Intelligence however. 

Other Info:

A fun little fact; I’ve already mentioned this but Five is particular about names, just as Era is. So he introduces himself as Viktor to people, and Thea, Era and Noa are the only ones (outside his blood family) that know his real name. However Era refers to him as Five still and Noa probably calls him Viktor, as they both understand far to well how much names mean and how special they are for agents like Five and Era. Likewise, Era doesn’t tell Thea and Five her full name (Erabelle) until after the end of the canon story. Even then Thea calls her Belle and Five still has a habit of calling her Nine, though he’s started to call her Erabelle/Belle as well. Only Noa calls her Erabelle. 

[huckstersandhoaxes]

In August of 1835, an article claiming to be from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, reprinted by The New York Sun, took the city of New York by storm. This fantastic account of life on the moon, from bipedal beavers to bat-winged humanoids, was largely embraced as true. Though the thought seems ludicrous to us today, scholar David Copeland offers several plausible explanations, including the popular interest in astronomy sparked by the passing of Halley’s comet in 1835 and the widespread religious acceptance of life on the moon (Copeland 141-142). I’d like to offer one more factor alongside that perfect storm of cultural touchstones: The moon, as presented by Richard Adams Locke, was a purer world which blended 19th century wishes for the present with hopes for the future.

Locke’s moon is a frontier world; a peaceful, idealized version of the American West. Its vast, forested plains are inhabited by a creature “having all the external characteristics of the bison...[and] a remarkable fleshy appendage over the eyes,” (Locke 10) which may well be hunted by a species of bipedal beavers, with “huts...constructed better and higher than those of many tribes of human savages.” (Locke 12) To the modern eye a moon full of bison and furry Native American analogues seems quite jarring. But in the age of manifest destiny the West, like the moon, was an unexplored territory full of awe and potential.

In contrast to the beavers, who are merely noted as having discovered fire, Locke characterizes his man-bats as “rational beings...capable of producing works of art and contrivance.” (Locke 15) Together with this observation, their similarity with humans seems to earn the man-bats the title of dominant species on the moon. But they don’t exert this dominance over other species by hunting, as humans- who hunted the American bison to near extinction in the 19th century- would do. In fact, a sort of white stag grazes near the man-bats “without the least manifestation of fear on his part or notice on their.” (Locke 21) The beauty and awe of the Lunar frontier is unmarred by violence, either against nature or, so far as Locke recounts, against the more ‘primitive’ Native peoples.

In spite of the simple innocence demonstrated by the man-bats, or perhaps because of it, they maintain what a 19th century reader might find an enviable degree of racial purity. There are three races of man-bats: Those with a “yellowish” face, “a slight improvement upon that of the large orang outang,” (Locke 15), those “of larger stature than the former specimens, less dark in color, and in every respect an improved variety of the race,” (Locke 20), and “the very superior species”, who are “scarcely less lovely than...angels,” (Locke 22). The darker-skinned individuals are compared to orangutans, whereas those who resemble the painted ideal of an angel are presumably akin to a White human. Each race seems to naturally inhabit different flocks, for lack of a better word, despite at least two of them inhabiting the same continent.

This sort of racial separation was an ideal for White 19th century society. James O’Sullivan, the very man who, in 1845, coined the term ‘manifest destiny’ to describe the American mindset with regards to the West, considered the ideal result for Black Americans to be “[emancipating them] from slavery...to remove [them] from the midst of our own.” (O’Sullivan 7) Locke’s vision of the moon presents a world which his contemporaries might have hoped the widespread acceptance of phrenology and other racial pseudosciences would spark; one in which racial divisions require no effort or legal enforcement, but are simply accepted as laws of nature.

The religious practices of the moon’s inhabitants, or perhaps their ancestors, also demonstrate the long-term conclusion of certain 19th century trends. Although the temples seen by the narrator no longer seem to be active places of worship, they’re described as “a fane of devotion, or of science, which, when consecrated to the Creator is devotion of the loftiest order; for it exhibits his attributes purely free fromthe masquerade, attire, and blasphemous caricature of controversial creeds,” given that it’s free of any carvings or obvious marks of sectarianism, made only of a beautiful blue stone and some sort of yellow metal (Locke 18).

This simply constructed, light, airy temple brings to mind the simple, personal, passionate religion that was sweeping the country in the 19th century, manifesting in séances, spirit photography, and other ways of directly interacting with ghosts and the afterlife. Those phenomenon were part of what David Copeland terms “a ‘scientific’ theology that could be used to explain and rationalize all elements of faith.” (Copeland 143) While the temple itself offers no scientific justifications for faith, its apparent absence of sectarianism or subjective imagery offers the hope for a universal faith— something pure, simple, and understood by all. Although the Lunarians might no longer worship at the temple, it could serve as beacon of hope for the future for any watching humans.

Ultimately, Locke’s moon hoax was a story that didn’t need to be true; it only needed to be beautiful. It offered the hope and awe of a scientific discovery of epic proportions, alongside a sort of fable that promised an alternative to strife and a remedy for societal ills. It earns the moniker of early science fiction not only by its speculative nature, but by the ways in which it appeals to a sense of inevitable progress and the idea of a fundamental morality possessed by all sentient species.

Copeland, David A. “A Series of Fortunate Events: Why People Believed Richard Adams Locke’s Moon Hoax.” Journalism History, vol. 33, no. 3, 2007, pp. 140–150., doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2007.12062738.

Locke, Richard Adams. “GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES LATELY MADE BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D. F.R.S. &amp;c. At the Cape of Good Hope [From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science].” The New York Sun, 25 Aug. 1835.

O’Sullivan, J.L. “Annexation.” The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, vol. 17, 1845, pp. 5–10. Google Books, play.google.com/books/reader?id=JvE7AQAAMAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;pg=GBS.PA5.

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 5 February 2018

Quick Bits:

Armstrong & The Vault of Spirits is a fun one-shot that uses Aram’s collection of wine to weave together the “true story” of Noah, the emergence of a previously unknown arch-nemesis, the secrets societies that continue to plague Archer & Armstrong, and the often hidden emotional connection that Armstrong has with his family. It’s really nice to see Fred Van Lente back chronicling these characters, even if just for one special right now.

| Published by Valiant

Avengers #679 tags in Kim Jacinto for art duties, appearing to be up to the challenge laid out by Pepe Larraz in quality of work on this book. We get the stakes of the match here between the Grandmaster and the Challenger, of whom we also get a history, and it manages to make all of the destruction and battles seem like mere whims of these members of the Elders of the universe. I suspect when discovered, this isn’t going to sit well with the Avengers. As only part five, this also makes me wonder what else Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub have up their sleeves.

| Published by Marvel

Black Bolt #10 has a brief crossover segment with Inhumans: Judgment Day, illustrated by guest-artist Stephanie Hans. It’s beautiful, and an interesting way to work in the events of the broader Inhumans saga into the current arc in this series. I like how Saladin Ahmed handles Lash’s plan to advance all of the interwoven spinning plates.

| Published by Marvel

Coyotes #4 closes out the first arc along the theme of upheaval. There are some interesting parallels put forward in the Duchess and Red’s situations, as well as the comeuppance against the coyotes who have been hunting women. As usual, Caitlin Yarsky’s art elevates everything. I highly recommend picking up these issues or pre-ordering the collection for April; Sean Lewis and Yarsky did something great here.

| Published by Image

Extremity #11 is the penultimate issue of the series as the final battle is enjoined. Daniel Warren Johnson mainly focuses here on the action and as usual the artwork is gorgeous. I’m going to really miss this series when it’s done.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Giant Days #35 somewhat skirts the issue of the fallout of Ed’s admission of love to Esther last issue for now, instead following on a visiting Sarah and Lottie Grote. It’s funny seeing Daisy and Susan trying to look after a kid, plus the interesting development that Daisy may finally be cluing in that Ingrid is absolutely horrible.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / Boom! Box 

Incognegro: Renaissance #1 kicks off a new mystery with the death of a black author at a literary shindig, with the police appearing completely disinterested in the case completely. Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece deliver an interesting start.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Infinity Countdown: Adam Warlock #1 acts as a bridge between Guardians of the Galaxy #150 and, as well as a primer for, Infinity Countdown: Prime. Adam Warlock has been reborn and this issue gives us a summary of Warlock’s history and teases what’s to come at the end of time, as he enters into an uneasy alliance with Kang the Conqueror. A lot of this issue has Gerry Duggan recapping events and foreshadowing what’s to come, but it is highly elevated by the art of Mike and Laura Allred. 

| Published by Marvel

Koshchei the Deathless #2 continues to be a fun and exciting fable of Koshchei telling Hellboy his story. Mike Mignola does a great job of including some subtle humour into the telling, along with the absurdity of some of the Russian folktales (or the like), and Ben Stenbeck (with Dave Stewart’s colours) is again phenomenal.

| Published by Dark Horse

Mech Cadet Yu #6 has the kids face off against baby Sharg and it’s all kinds of awesome.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

No. 1 With a Bullet #4 finds new and inventive ways to ruin Nash’s life further, with weirdness continuing and lies emerging to cast her as a willing participant in her sex tape.

| Published by Image

Noble #9 is a kind of coda to the first two arcs, allowing David and Astrid a bit of quiet time and reflection before tackling the next stage in their lives. It’s interesting in their dealings with Foresight and Lorena Payan here that even when they manage to get somewhat free, Payan has to remind them that even their personal lives are still under observation.

| Published by Lion Forge / Catalyst Prime

Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon #4 amps up the action in this penultimate issue of the series. Christopher Mitten (with colours by Dave Stewart) is on fire this issue.

| Published by Dark Horse

Rogue & Gambit #2 reminds me again that I don’t like Rogue and Gambit as a couple, something about them together just seems like nails on a chalkboard at this point, but I do like Kelly Thompson writing about them. There’s a nice mix of humour, action, and history that keeps this flowing nicely. It also helps that the art from Pere Pérez with colours by Frank D’Armata is amazing.

| Published by Marvel

Rose #8 gives a bit of history on Drucilla, with Felix giving excuses for why she’s grown into a selfish, evil monstrosity. It’s interesting to see the lengths we’ll go to in order to explain away bad behaviour of family members. Ig Guara, with colours by Triona Farrell, also deserves more attention.  Their art on this series since day one has been impeccable. 

| Published by Image

Scarlett’s Strike Force #2 advances many of the story threads in an interesting fashion, particularly Skywarp’s disillusionment with the Joe’s in fixing his teleportation and the burgeoning mystical aspect to Cobra. There’s also a humorous exchange between Raptor and Croc Master.

| Published by IDW

Spirits of Vengeance #5 concludes what was an unexpected, but excellent, mini-series from Victor Gischler, David Baldeón, and Andres Mossa. It was a nice mix of humour, action, and gorgeous art playing with some of Marvel’s lately underutilized supernatural characters. I know that they’ll likely reappear during the upcoming Damnation event, but I’d definitely like to see more from this creative team.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars #43 brings the “Ashes of Jedha” arc to a close with a surprising twist. Also, some great art again by Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX.

| Published by Marvel

TMNT Universe #19 begins a new arc “Service Animals” by Ian Flynn, Dave Wachter, and Ronda Pattison, as a well as a prelude for the upcoming Kingdom of Rats storyline in the main book, by Bobby Curnow and Pablo Tunica. It’s always great to see Wachter’s art, especially with how expressive his turns at Alopex are here.

| Published by IDW

Transformers: Lost Light #14 is mostly a Scavengers story, but unlike most of them, this one is no light-hearted romp. Like the recent Getaway arc, this gets pretty serious and pretty dark.

| Published by IDW

Transformers vs. Visionaries #2 gets into more of the internecine warfare and skirmishes between the factions of the Visionaries themselves as the Darkling Lords and the Spectral Knights battle for the soul and honour of their people. I like what Magdalene Visaggio is setting up here and Fico Ossio’s artwork, with colours by David Garcia Cruz, is beautiful.

| Published by IDW

Twisted Romance #1 is off to a good start. This issue has a trio of tales that largely mix horror/supernatural with love/sex/romance. The highlight for me is Sarah Horrocks’ piece that reminds me of the existential eroticism of Clive Barker’s work, but all three are worth the price of admission. Alex de Campi and Katie Skelly’s story is a bit of revenge on a cheating partner’s lover with a confrontation between an incubus and a succubus, while Magen Cubed delivers a sweet prose story of a monster hunter and the vampire who loves him.

| Published by Image

Venom #161 has some truly excellent artwork from Javier Garrón (with colours by Dono Sánchez-Almara and Erick Arciniega) as Mike Costa pens a done-in-one story advancing some of the series’ sub-plots while giving a fitting confrontation between Venom and Spider-Woman. With this issue sandwiched between two crossovers (the just finished Venom Inc. on one side and Poison-X on the other) it’s nice to see how the team make this wholly satisfying on its own.

| Published by Marvel

Vs. #1 debuts with gorgeous artwork by Esad Ribić and Nic Klein, perfectly capturing turning war into a commercialized sport. Along with the lettering from Aditya Bidikar and graphics by Tom Muller, it manages to have a nice European, particularly Humanoids, feel to it, despite not being particularly over the top.

| Published by Image

The Wicked + The Divine 1923 is quite possibly the greatest issue of this already magnificent series, and a must buy for the people who may have otherwise been missing out on the tangential one-shots. This one is meaty with story and purpose as Kieron Gillen and Aud Koch blend prose and comics, along with conventions of pulp mysteries, silent film, and more to create a ritual that helped shape the rest of the 20th century as a kind of prelude to the main WicDiv series. This is a thing of beauty.

| Published by Image

Witchblade #3 goes deeper on both Alex’s history and the mystery of the supernatural stuff going on around her. I may sound like a broken record, but again I have to commend Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata, and Bryan Valenza for this series, because it’s got a great story and beautiful artwork.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

X-Men Red #1 is off to a pretty good start. The artwork from Mahmud Asrar with colours by Ive Svorcina are a real draw, as is the return of Jean Grey to the X-Men, but the breakout star is still Tom Taylor’s characterizations. Particularly of Honey Badger.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: 30 Days of Night #3, Amazing Spider-Man #795, The Backstagers 2018 Valentine’s Intermission #1, Black Comix Returns, The Damned #8, Daredevil #598, Dejah Thoris #1, Get Naked, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call #3, The Gravediggers Union #4, Half Past Danger II: Dead to Reichs #5, Hawkeye #15, Iron Fist #77, Jazz Maynard #7, Legenderry: Red Sonja #1, Monstro Mechanica #3, Paper Girls #20, Rock Candy Mountain #8, Runaways #6, Scales & Scoundrels #6, She-Hulk #162, Spider-Man #237, Spider-Man vs. Deadpool #27, Tomb Raider: Survivor’s Crusade #3

Recommended Collections: Avengers & Champions: Worlds Collide, Backstagers - Volume 2, Clue, Incognegro, Inhumans: Once & Future Kings, Scales & Scoundrels - Volume 1: Into the Dragon’s Maw, Secret Weapons Deluxe Edition, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra - Volume 2: Doctor Aphra and the Enormous Profit, TMNT - Volume 18: Trial of Krang, Transformers/GI Joe: First Strike, Transformers/GI Joe: First Strike - Champions

d. emerson eddy believes that you shouldn’t be the problem, be the solution.

[buttonholedlife]

Exactly how Frankfurt's '80s Tape Scene Laid The Groundwork For The Urban area's Techno Revival-- Telekom Electronic Hammers

"Pass Away Puppe by Perish Type from France was actually a discovery to me because it was one of the 1st speculative albums that used the TR-808," mentions Weiss. "The absolute most magic instant of appointment Lars and Tobias was when I entered their place in Frankfurt and Tobias possessed an 808."

The renowned part of package came to be the central emphasis of Hypnobeat. In the years to come, as much as three would certainly be used on stage at one time along with a tangle of various other drum equipments as well as FX devices.

Roman Rütten was likewise fascinated with the opportunities of digital music. He had been raised as a classically trained pianist, however coming from the age of 14 he was actually swept up by the hooligan surge.

"I obtained all the documents from the Sex Guns until Sham 69, therefore I felt this symphonic music way is certainly not my style, I need to perform one thing of my personal," Rütten clarifies. "I started drumming on iron pubs with little bits of lumber. I acquired 4 strip recorders, and afterwards the 1st MS synth from Korg."

Rütten's project, Schaum Der Tage, started in 1982. He utilized a multi-track audio-cassette recorder to record noises and melodious passages from his synth as well as underpinned it along with simple drumming on a refuse newspaper container. The 1st Schaum Der Tage strip release failed to show up until 1986, however Rütten's musical instruction increased his lo-fi tips into distinct tune pieces.

Rütten additionally functioned with his old school pal Martin Schopf as Subrosa. Sometimes Schopf as well as Rütten bore down, albeit naively, to compose genuine tunes like "Thousand of Far Away", however they appeared most unforgettable spitting out the rude electro thug of "Zeitlos."

"Martin is just one of my earliest institution good friends," mentions Rütten. "It was a lot later on we determined to make songs together. I would not mention our experts made great popular music with each other, but our aim was merely enjoying yourself, making jokes during."

The price and also access of cassettes were actually intrinsic to DIY popular music culture in the 1980s. There were a handful of vital strip tags in Frankfurt that helped push this culture regionally and around the globe, via a combo of songs customer reviews, categorized adverts in magazines as well as handles on tape inlays. This below ground system relocated slowly-- it might take 3 months to obtain a reply to a deal of strips-- however it was actually vibrant.

Peter Weiss' Black and white Tapes was primarily a vessel for Hypnobeat recordings, but the Independent World compilations he and Steinfadt placed all together were a measure of the reach of tape culture. As local acts like Vo Ese, Hypnobeat as well as Stefan Freund, they were able to score monitors through Die Type, Pink Market, Tom Ellard (of Severed Moves), Steven Brown (of Tuxedomoon), Coming From Scratch and also much more.

"The compilations that Peter made were amazing," describes Müller. "He understood Severed People as well as people like that. So he would certainly acquire monitors through folks you wouldn't count on to help in a compilation that 'd sell possibly one hundred duplicates.'"

There was actually additionally a set of compilations on the MAM-Aufnahme, Ffm tag that assisted the local area setting alongside international acts, while No worry Tapes launched pair of thorough collections including ratings of overlooked, one-off jobs. Collectionism additionally stands out as a particularly achieved Frankfurt group coming from the era, while Niko Heyduck's collaboration with noted writer Thor Kunkel as Perish Synthetische Wohlfahrt provided a great self-released demo in 1984.

The abovementioned Klistier Records outlet was a core hub that offered the well-known industrial and experimental launches of the day. It's manner enhance could be found in Jinx, a shop put together in the Nordend neighborhood through Christa Kilbinger and Andreas Comtesse. It functioned as a bodily meeting factor for the tape scene.

"The fashion style in Jinx was actually influenced by musicians like Tuxedomoon, Paradise 17 as well as the clothes of ladies musicians," reveals Kilbinger. "Huge shoulder pads, large sports jackets. To minimize the expenditure, our team filled our personal self-made clothing as well. In the end of 1985, we began marketing strips. Our experts spoke to neighborhood bands and promoted the outlet in regional journals, where our experts talked to the cassette folks to obtain in call along with our company."

In 1986 Jinx coordinated the Frank Cassetten Festivity at Batschkapp, which included real-time performances through Hypnobeat, Cocks In Stained Silk as well as Collectionism. Before that, the place had held the rising ruffian motion as well as took place to take prominent industrial as well as new age acts like Tuxedomoon, Tool Channel as well as Chris & & Cosey to community.

"I played my 1st gig in Batschkapp opening for Pork Beat Policy," claims Uwe Schmidt. "The Batschkapp will bring much bigger international process, folks like Skinny Puppy and afterwards a nearby musician would open. I had no tip what to carry out when I participated in there certainly."

A substantial festival in Frankfurt's early digital record was actually Geminox. It was coordinated in 1984 by the late Walter E. Baumann, a neighborhood impresario from the area's abundant art scene that rushed the renowned fine art and also popular music magazine Schvantz! Geminox included speculative audiovisual performances through Z'EV, Nightclub Moral, as well as Mainz-based group Non Toxique Lost. It was also where Hypnobeat played its initial job.

"Peter as well as I were preparing the music for Geminox," discusses Müller, "and our company were actually unsure our company might play to such a big audience, merely both people. So our team talked to Tobias and also Pietro [ Insipido] if they will happen on stage along with our team and also take part. Peter and also I performed the drum programs, as well as they were managing the devices as well as using impacts systems."

When they were actually still pupils, a number of the musicians in this particular performance arranged their first online experiences by means of jobs at their colleges, albeit along with a reader that was actually arguably harder than the much more switched-on interrupt well-known sites.

"Tobias and I played our very first job at institution in '79 or perhaps '80," says Müller. "Our experts got some amps, took our personal devices, as well as we really didn't know exactly how people would respond. Individuals sometimes were quite vigorous, making an effort to take out wires. For ordinary individuals, participating in with drum makers evidently was a huge provocation."

"I was coordinating jobs along with buddies in university," points out Rütten, "one thing like a high school gathering. It was awful. Uwe Schmidt was aiding me to make the mix, yet a friend of mine made blow up puppets, which he burst along with fans that were actually louder than my music."

A few years much younger than the sort of Weiss, Freund and also Müller, Uwe Schmidt really did not start making music up until the mid 1980s. He initially pertained to the focus of the scene's protagonists at a makeshift school gig where he played along with his university close friends Olaf Finkbeiner and Torsten Kühne as Pornotanz.

"Martin stated to me, 'an old friend of mine is playing in a school, perform you intend to come?'" recollects Müller. "I assumed the band, Pornotanz, was actually awful, but the component Uwe carried out was actually outstanding, like a customized variation of Tavern Voltaire or Cutting Edge Convocation. I claimed to Martin, 'permits go as well as speak with him,' as well as coming from then on our experts blew up a friendly relationship."

It took a while before Schmidt presented his own recordings as Lassigue Bendthaus, caught on the lo-fi however deftly created 1988 document The Engineers Passion. It was actually released on NG Medien, a strip tag established by Rütten, Finkbeiner as well as Schmidt. The sonic development in between Pornotanz and Lassigue Bendthaus is actually subtle however obvious, and also it shows the greater changes that influenced the digital music setting both in Frankfurt as well as beyond.

"I was captivated due to the digital body music developments," points out Rütten. "I possessed connects with coming from the strip scene, to Costs Leeb coming from Skinny Pup. Our team accepted to release the 1st album by his brand new band Cutting edge Assembly in Germany on NG Medien."

Whereas the industrial culture of the very early 1980s had been undefined and also available, through the mid-to-late '80s specific new methods had formed. Key amongst these was actually EBM. Sequencers, samplers and also electronic technology triggered punchier dancing floor sounds. Sven Väth promoted EBM alongside various other digital dancing music at his nightclubs Vogue as well as Omen. Fabled, disco-era Frankfurt club Dorian Gray even compromised to this songs, largely with the work of local area promoter Andreas Tomalla (aka Talla 2XLC) and also his Technoclub celebrations.

Talla was also connected with Bigod twenty, an EBM team made up in Frankfurt in 1988 led through Markus Nikolai. Bigod 20 discovered better results in the very early '90s when they incorporated vocalist Thomas Franzmann (a.k.a. Zip Campisi) to their selection. Nikolai and Franzmann would certainly go on to develop the famous minimal property label Perlon eventually in the '90s.

Schmidt's own journey as Lassigue Bendthaus proceeded swiftly. Wrenching up hrs of workshop opportunity at the semi-professional Besser Tonstudio; after pair of years of meticulous job he arised along with Issue, his bold, compelling 2nd cd that bent greatly into the noise of EBM. Schmidt took place to document under credit ratings of aliases, a number of the best prominent being AtomTM as well as Señor Coconut.

Alongside EBM, the arrival people dancing popular music coming from Chicago and also Detroit additionally induced a seismic change in the digital songs garden. Artists were actually right now faced along with the possibility to take factors in an even more specialist, or perhaps commercial, direction.

"When Tobias and I started doing our stuff, Yellow Magic Orchestra released Technodelic," clarifies Müller. "Our company started phoning our songs 'techno'. Our experts utilized 'techno' for a long period of time, possibly until '87 or even '88, and afterwards once your house and acid scene started the tag techno quickly had a different meaning, and I didn't such as to utilize it any kind of a lot more."

Through 1987, the core companionship group of musicians as well as close friends in the Frankfurt tape scene included a rotary combination of cooperations and also experiments. Alejandra Carmona Cannobbio as well as Claudia Iglesias had entered the imaginative fold. Müller and Cannobbio had actually a task phoned Arquitectos De Ruidos, and also a loosely described group task developed phoned Area Industriel. They took a road journey to play a job in Barcelona, captured in wistful Super 8 through Freund and also readily available to check out on his Vimeo webpage.

It was actually around this time that the band Sieg Über Pass away Sonne likewise took condition. The initial file under the title, the Mr. Leben 7" in 1989, featured Freund, Schopf, Müller, Cannobbio, Iglesias and Heyduck. Adhering to the vacation to Barcelona, a clear crack arised in the group that left behind some of the core participants by the wayside. Roman Rütten, much more rapt along with the song-based structures of the post-punk and also gothic movements, was actually told he no more matched the team's cosmetic.

"At that time, around 1988, Martin told me I failed to suit the group anymore," states Rütten. "Him and Tobias and also all the various other individuals mentioned, 'our experts have to go our digital method, as well as Roman should go his post-punk way.'"

Rütten happened to several various other jobs throughout the '90s and also '00s, featuring Crux Ansata, Zerose and also Endraum. Meanwhile, Müller, Schopf, Cannobbio as well as Iglesias moved to Chile in 1989 and played their part in encouraging the growth of a digital songs scene in Santiago. On returning to Germany, Müller was informed he was actually zero longer a part of Sieg Über Die Sonne. Freund and also Schopf relocated to Berlin, proceeded the venture by themselves, and located considerable results with their wacky, crossover electro-pop noise.

"It's unfortunate for me," mentions Müller, "because many of individuals you are actually discussing were a group of good friends performing things all together, till around the late '80s when the entire performance started to break down and relationships were dropped. When I returned from Chile, I learnt in a very distressing way that Tobias and Martin were certainly not thinking about proceeding along with me."

This content was originally published here.

[tipsycad147]

20 Fascinating Sea & Air Creatures To Focus Your Magic

SL Bear

I had so much fun writing about animals in magic in part one of the animal magic series but there were so many animals I wasn’t able to cover the first time around. I’m going to try to get to everyone’s favourites in the next two parts, and a few intriguing creatures that we may not think about as magical. Animals can lend such a wide variety of energies to a witch’s work that it’s worth it to delve into more of their associations. I hope you enjoy learning about these animals as much as I did!

Water Bound 1. Shark

With its jet-black eyes, ghostly movements, and uncontrollable power, the shark is an animal that strikes fear in the hearts of many. Sharks stay in perpetual motion to keep oxygen flowing into their gills and are great animals to channel when you feel stagnant and need to get out of a rut (or revive lost motivation). Sharks also have exceptional senses of smell and go after their kills with tenacity. The term “shark” is applied to those in business who are shrewd and obscenely rich, so this animal is a great inspiration to any witches looking to advance their businesses or careers. Invoke the shark by keeping an (ethically sourced!) shark tooth in a mojo bag or wear as a piece of jewellery around your neck. Also a wonderful protection totem.

2. Swan

Swans are associated with the Valkyries, or Swan Maidens, and transformation. The story of the Ugly Duckling plays on this transformative angle as well. In fact, swans feature prominently in fairy tales, often as devices of mystery, secrets, the night and the moon — typically in the form of maidens turned into swans to hide their true identity. You should use swans in your magic when you need to keep something hidden. Place an image of a swan on your altar when you’re trying to keep secrets or veil something from prying eyes. Pair the swan image with the moon or water for extra protection and to amp up your intuition.

3. Otter

An animal built for play. The otter embodies both earth and water energies and a joyful nature. They relax. They hold on to each other while they sleep, floating in the water, and symbolise support and friendship. Pair seashells with an image of an otter before a family outing to ensure a good time for everyone. Light a green or blue candle and invoke the spirit of the otter whenever you’re getting too serious!

4. Crocodile & Alligator

These animals can symbolise patience and stealth, and embody many of the dragon’s characteristics, but what I find most impressive about this reptile is their ability to survive. Crocodiles actually roamed the earth with the dinosaurs! They are also quite long-lived, and so I recommend using this animal in spells for health and longevity. In the south, alligator feet are sold to gamblers for luck, so drawing this animal somewhere on your person before buying lottery tickets may be just the edge you need.  

5. Frog

Like the swan and the butterfly, the frog is a transformative animal. It changes dramatically from a polliwog to a frog and can live on land and in the water. Frogs were the second plague in Exodus and are seen in a bad light by some. However, in other cultures, the frog is seen as a good omen because he comes out when there is a lot of rain — a symbol of life. I suggest two ways to call on the frog symbol. First, if you’re a weather witch and would like help summoning rain, draw a frog symbol in a patch of dry earth and sprinkle this area with blessed water. Second, if you’d like to curse someone with an abundance of something unpleasant, draw a frog somewhere on your target’s taglock.

6. Fish

Fish have evolved to live in the deepest, darkest corners of the earth — places humans can’t go — and therefore they represent mysteries and deep understanding of the self. They are also one of the more colourful and brightly patterned animals and so are associated with artists, creativity, and enlightenment. Incorporate the fish symbol in sigils (as this shape is quite easy to draw) and focus the sigil on self-discovery. Some truths are hard to take, which makes the fish an especially good symbol for this type of magic. They remind you to learn, but not to dwell, and always keep moving forward.  

7. Crab

Protection, stubbornness and emotion. In the zodiac, the crab is the symbol of Cancer and the moon. One of the most important things I have learned in life is how to set boundaries and the crab is an amazing animal to invoke if you wish to protect yourself in this way. Light a white or black candle, include a water element, and use a piece of real crab claw or a just simple drawing of one to represent yourself. Light the candle and reflect on simple and more complicated boundaries you’d like others to respect. Carry the image of the crab with you to remind you to be firm about how you expect others to treat you. Use the crab to get in touch with your emotions, in control of them, and responsible for them at all times.  

8. Dolphin

Because this animal looks like it’s smiling, it is seen as a joyful, playful animal. However, dolphins are renowned by scientists for their intelligence — rivalling even our own. They use echolocation to find their way through water and have highly evolved communication skills. Some believe dolphins even have extra senses as they can perform extraordinary feats of athleticism, show high empathy, are extremely curious, and possess the ability to connect with other animals in unusual — even baffling — ways. They are a symbol of communication and cooperation, so I suggest using dolphins in your magic when you’re having difficulty saying something or letting someone know how you feel.

9. Turtle

Tortoises and turtles carry a lot of weight — literally and symbolically. In Hinduism, the turtle carries the weight of the universe on his four legs (which represent the four cardinal directions and elements). Because turtles live for a long time, they are natural symbols of longevity, health and of course, wisdom. Illustrated in fables like the Tortoise and the Hare, the turtle is also a symbol of perseverance and taking things at your own pace. After all, it’s not about how fast you get there but that you get there in the end. At home in water and on land, you can use the turtle symbol with both these elements. You can wear the turtle symbol as jewellery or draw it on your altar or somewhere in your workspace to remind you to keep at your goals and to be unconcerned with rising to anyone standard’s but your own.    

10. Orca

The blackfish, or wolf of the sea, is a respected predator, but is also known for its deep familial bonds, intelligence, and prowess — the human being’s ocean counterpart. Orcas travel great distances each day and are a symbol for travellers. Perhaps more than anything, the orca is known for their devotion to their families, often becoming despondent after losing a mother or calf. Call on the spirit of the blackfish when you need inner strength, especially when dealing with family conflict. Before travelling to see family, draw a symbol of an orca in chalk on your dashboard to ensure safe travel.

Made Of Air11. Crane

This elegant bird is a prominent symbol in Asian cultures for good fortune, long life and a strong marriage. Cranes also represent serene calm — retaining your dignity during chaos and storms. The iconic origami crane is a symbol for happiness and learning how to craft one to add to your altar will bring joy and good luck. You can also invoke the crane before a wedding to bring good fortune and wishes for a stable, happy life together.

12. Dove

Peace. Strangely, these birds produce “milk” for their offspring and because of their pure white feathers and nurturing nature, doves are a symbol of motherhood, sharing links to the Virgin Mary and Ishtar. Doves are symbols of communication, appearing in the bible with an olive branch to alert Noah to the presence of land. They can be trained to carry messages back and forth between parties, like pigeons, but even before that were seen as messengers from the gods. Any mothers facing problems with their children can call on the dove for assistance by lighting a white candle and placing a white feather before it while asking for help.    

13. Eagle

Courage and communication with the divine. Known as the “king of birds”, the eagle has excellent eyesight and flies much higher than other birds, it sees all and knows all. This also gives it a link to the sun, as it is often appears to fly straight into it! The eagle is a symbol of power, and its feathers are treasured among the Plains tribes who use them to make magnificent headdresses. However, those who don’t have a right to own one of these creatures feathers will face heavy fines if caught with one. Use the eagle symbol in magic to communicate with spirits and your chosen patrons. Draw an eagle before yellow and golden candles to receive messages about which direction to take during confusing times.  

14. Hummingbird

This jewel-bright bird can live in the desert, jungle, or mountains and survives on nectar and small insects. Its adaptability and flight maneuverability have made it a symbol of mystical connection — the hummingbird can move in all directions, even beyond the veil to converse with spirits. The hummingbird is a master at conserving energy, slowing down its heartbeat to a near standstill at night only to revive in the morning light and begin its endless mission for food all over again each day. You can use hummingbirds in your magic to bring things into perfect focus. Throughout the day, we waste time on so many useless or petty things, but the hummingbird does not! Keep a hummingbird figurine on your desk or wear a piece of hummingbird jewellery to stay clear on your goals and stop wasting time on things that simply don’t matter.

15. Magpie

A delightfully fun trickster bird. The magpie collects shiny objects and can imitate human voices and other sounds with eerie perfection. Because of its thievery and imitation skills, the magpie is often seen in a negative light, but I happen to disagree with this assessment. I see this bird as resourceful and a wonderful totem to those who like to think outside the box and play the game by their own rules. It’s not an easy path, though, and invoking the spirit of the tricky magpie may be just the thing to evade those who seek to impede your individual journey. Remember to pay homage to the magpie when you ask for his help by placing mirrors and other shiny things on your altar as thanks!

16. Rooster

Each morning on the farm, the rooster heralds the sunrise. He is alert, ready, and brave. Universally, the rooster is a symbol of sexuality and the sun, though to some he is vain, prideful, and flamboyant — “cocky” if you will. This is a bird to call on when you need confidence before a big event in your personal life or at work. Be sure to include a fire element, either stones or candles, face east, and perform any rituals involving the rooster as the sun rises.  

17. Sparrow

This unassuming brown bird is so common she often goes unnoticed but the sparrow represents perhaps the most important part of many of our lives: Family and home. We often take for granted the simple things in life, things that were they to go, we’d miss more than anything else. Paint or frame a small image of the sparrow in the kitchen or living room to remind you to appreciate the things in your life that are most important: Your loved ones, your safety, and your home.

18. Wren

This clever little bird is a surprising symbol of royalty and shares the title “king of the birds” with the eagle. It is a symbol of magic and intelligence, and despite its small stature, is considered quite powerful. The wren can be used to amplify spells, especially those concerning wisdom and truth. Carrying an image of this bird will also give you an edge in games of chance and any competition where you may be an underdog.  

19. Peacock

The peacock is a showstopper with a big reveal. The eyes in the peacock’s tail feathers lead some to believe that the peacock is a symbol for visionaries and was the protector of royalty. In Hinduism, the peacock is associated with Lakshmi, a goddess of good luck. I suggest using peacock feathers in your magic for any new projects that require creativity and your psychic gifts. This beautiful bird’s gifts will facilitate art projects, writing, and anything involving design.

20. Vulture

For some the vulture is a symbol of oncoming death, which is understandable because vultures are scavenger birds and follow death around to survive. However, in Egypt they were revered for keeping the city clean. The vulture is the perfect bird to help with cleansing. Keep an image of this bird on your altar to peck away any invading negative energy or channel its spirit while doing personal cleansing to clear away any residual bad vibes.

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/20-fascinating-sea-air-creatures-to-focus-your-magic

[dateagirlwhosweird]

The Lantern

So, a couple of months ago, I (Mod Morgan) wrote this as part of my English class portfolio. We were told to try writing something outwith our standard comfort zone, and it was suggested I try writing romance. This was around the point where I started getting super into this blog, so, the following was meant to be a love story with just a dash of my own personal flair for the weird. Hope you enjoy it!

- Mod Morgan

My girlfriend has a television for a head.

Maybe that sounds weird. Truth be told, it is pretty weird. When we hear things we don’t expect, we call them weird. She called me weird when I said that I liked the second Hoosiers album, and I called her weird when she had her head surgically replaced with a CRT monitor. Weirdness is all a matter of perspective. From any normal person’s perspective, it’s weird to still listen to 2007-era quirk-rock, and even weirder to pay for extreme biomechanical augmentation.

Zoë was always a big fan of body-modding. It had started with just piercing her ears - don’t tell her I told you, but she cried like a baby when she got them. It felt like she was going to tear my arm off, that girl has no pain tolerance. But for months afterwards, she couldn’t stop talking about how great it felt to get it done. I was obviously kind of concerned in case it was some sort of weird sex thing, but she assured me that it wasn’t. In the months following, she got a stud in her nose, then a ring beside it. Two in the arch of her left ear, three on the right. Her lip, her lip again. Her lip a third time, her tongue. Then she moved on to tattoos, too many for me to keep track of, her body becoming a collage of intertwining rose stems and snaking tendrils. I didn’t know where they were coming from, how she could be getting so many, with more turning up seemingly every week.

The TV was the next step, what she called the final one. Just like the third lip piercing had been the final one. She said it so casually, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Hey, so, um, I was thinking of, like, getting a TV for a head? What do you think?”.

I thought it was a joke, but she insisted that she really meant it.

“A what?”

“A TV! Y’know…”, she said, gesturing in a big rectangle around her face

“You want… a TV for a head?”

“Yeah! C’mon, it’ll be awesome!”

I called her weird. When we hear things we don’t expect, we call them weird. I tried to talk her out of it, on more than one occasion, but who am I to tell her how to live her life? Love is all about making little sacrifices, and maybe it wouldn’t even be so bad? That was what I told myself, what I had to keep telling myself. She kept telling me it was something she wanted to do, but she couldn’t tell me why. ‘It’s just for fun!’, she said. ‘It’s not like I’m trying to make a big statement about society, maaaan or anything! I just like the way it looks!”

And then I would laugh because the whole situation was ridiculous, because I knew that she would never actually go through with it.

dramatic irony (noun)

a situation, or the irony arising from a situation, in which the audience has a fuller knowledge of what is happening in a drama than a character does

I remember the last time I saw her face. I remember tracing my right thumb along her soft, slightly squishy cheek, asking her if she was sure she wanted to go through with this. She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. I could see the conviction in her round, dark eyes, eyes I reminded myself that I would never, ever see again.

Zoë liked to wear a lot of eye makeup. She always had tired, tired eyes, no matter how much she slept. Eyes with dark circles denoting the sockets. She covered them up with thick black eyeliner, and I always said that she looked like a footballer with all that stuff under her eyes. I mean a stereotypical American footballer, that is, with the black rectangular lines? Obviously, the only thing our footballers, proper footballers, have under their eyes are their delicate, injury-faking mouths, or so I’ve been told.

I miss her eyes. Maybe it makes me sound like a serial killer for saying it, but, I miss them. You don’t appreciate the little things until they’re gone, like eye contact with someone you love, or a TV series that got cancelled too soon.

When she came back out of surgery, I didn’t recognise her. Even if I knew it was her, with the television for a head, I didn’t recognise her. They wheeled her out in a hospital nightgown, her new head held low, her chest slowly rising and falling. I remember that it was showing those coloured boxes, you know the ones that American TV channels go to when they stop broadcasting? Her face was those coloured bars, and I thought it was the funniest thing. My girlfriend had had her head replaced with a TV, and I was cracking up over it in a hospital waiting room.

When we see things we don’t understand, we can either laugh or we cry. Zoë and I both preferred the former, and there was so much in the world that we both did not understand.

The first thing she did when the anaesthetic wore off was reach out and touch my face. I did the same. I held her new head in my hand, stroked my thumb across the right-hand dial. Her new cheek was cold and hard, but moved with little resistance. My thumb detuned her face. My thumb detuned my girlfriend’s face, and that was when I knew nothing was going to be the same again.

permanence (noun)

the state or quality of lasting or remaining unchanged indefinitely

a lie

The first few weeks were the hardest, I think. It was hard enough to see a future with her even before - she was all about elaborate outfits and dark makeup and bands that used enough amps to be heard from space, and I was a barely-functioning marshmallow-person made of constant dread and sugared pastries. Not exactly a match made in heaven, but we made it work despite our differences. She was everything I wanted to be, and I made her laugh. Not always on purpose, but I thought she was pretty when she laughed, so I didn’t mind that much.

A relationship built on idealism and laughter isn’t one built to last. Neither of us were huge fans of commitment. She, a rolling stone. Me, someone barely equipped to look after myself let alone a family. I was always worried about when - or, rather, how - things would end. I often wondered if she felt the same way.

With the new head, everything got so much harder. She seemed colder. Distant. Difficult to read. That wasn’t something I was good at before, and the TV hadn’t exactly made it easier. She tried her best to give me hints, I think, but she hadn’t worked out all the channel numbers yet. She’s gotten a lot better now. I told her a joke the other day, and she switched to an old Only Fools and Horses for a perfectly-timed laugh track.

Audience cues are the easiest ones for her to do, but she’s started stitching words together to form sentences. The first time she did it, switched through channels to say “Hello! How was your day?”, I told her it the happiest day of my entire life. And I was being totally sincere.

sincerity (noun)

the absence of pretence, deceit, or hypocrisy                                                                                                                                       ex. “With the utmost sincerity, I, your GP, would recommend against surgically replacing your head with a television, Miss Palencia. Seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

I remember sitting with her on the beach, watching the stars. Not the real stars - most nights in this city, you can’t see them - but the twinkling lights on the other side of the river. Man-made constellations, telling new fables, of new heroes and new monsters. It’s hard to tell which is which from so far away. The stars told stories of how we had built great things to overcome our obstacles. The stars told stories of how we had built great obstacles to be overcome. Perhaps, one of us thought, the lights were great hydroponic tanks, each a bubble sustaining a life, each life a stem that could grow into something wonderful. Perhaps, the other thought, the lights were the glistening eyes of a terrible mechanical beast, crawling across the landscape, spewing poison from the spires on its back to blot out the stars above, chewing up the peons below to lubricate its grinding mechanisms, perpetuate its reign. Perhaps it’s best if I let you imagine which of us thought which.

The tide lapped at our bare feet. I asked her whether it was safe for her to get her head wet, and we both laughed at how weird that sounded. She never answered, and I don’t think I would have liked it if she did.

She put her head on my shoulder, like she did every time we went to the beach. Unlike last time, it felt cold, heavy, angular. It buzzed with electricity.

She put her hand on my hand, like she did every time we went to the beach. It felt exactly the same as it always had. We buzzed together with electricity.

electricity (noun)

a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles (such as electrons or protons), either statically as an accumulation of charge or dynamically as a current

a word that pretentious writers use instead of “love”

the lifeblood of a television

Maybe I just got too caught up in trying to understand. I wanted to know, so desperately, what anything meant, to find some deep truth where there was none. Sometimes, things just happen - the TV isn’t a metaphor, or a test, or a big statement about “society, maaaan”. It was never about me, and that’s okay. To think that she had ever done it for me - to impress me, to spite me, just to see how I’d react - was just selfish wishful thinking. Zoë did it for Zoë, and it was her decision alone to make. And nothing - no amount of distance, nor extreme body modifications, nor disagreement on whether The Illusion of Safety was better than The Trick To Life, is going to change how I feel about her.

Illusion of Safety was objectively the best Hoosiers album, though.